Bob Murphy was working on electric vehicles before most of the UK had anywhere to plug one in. Back in 2011, having retrained as a mechanic at Edinburgh College, he fell into a small research project that put four EVs to work as staff pool cars. Nobody knew whether they could make it from Dalkeith to Dunbar and back. There was no public charging network to fall back on. The college ended up installing its own chargers and running a five-acre solar field on site, and some of those early Mitsubishi i-MiEVs and Citroën C-Zeros are still being stripped and rebuilt by trainee technicians today.
From there, Bob spent years selling and siting charge points across Scotland, which he counts as one of his proudest bits of work, and it took him to almost every corner of the country. He now works as a technical executive at Scottish Power, advising on charging networks and infrastructure, and he is a familiar face at industry events and in the WhatsApp groups where he answers questions from anyone, silly or not.
Paul and John talk with Bob about:
Why a lifelong petrolhead who once owned a four-litre Jaguar XJ6 and a pair of modified Ford Kas became a convert, and what a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N ring taxi lap of the Nürburgring taught him about EVs and fun
The wider home energy picture: home chargers, solar, batteries and heat pumps, and why an energy company is encouraging customers to use less
Hyperfocus, problem solving and the undiagnosed ADHD Bob credits for the way he goes deep on everything from i-MiEV battery cells to Star Trek lore
Pressing the reset button after a career or relationship change, leaning on friends, and a 2024 spent travelling solo to a different country every month
Pushing for the Scottish Power job when he felt he wasn't good enough, summed up by a Scottish phrase you'll want to remember: shy weans get nae sweeties
Plockton, the west coast, and where to point the car when you need to get away
Bob's wish with the EV Café magic wand: less ignorance, more empathy
Along the way there is a kilt, two West Highland terriers, a shortbread tin, a tour bus full of cameras at Fort Augustus, and the podcast's most contested answer yet to Star Wars or Star Trek.
Connect with Bob on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-murphy-300031b0/