Residents across four areas of the UK will be among the first in the country to participate in a new project that could save them hundreds of pounds annually when publicly charging EVs.
Councils in East Lothian, Glasgow, Hackney and Shropshire will each take part in the Agile Streets scheme, which aims to demonstrate how smart technology can be integrated into public EV chargers across the UK.
All four areas were selected due to reported high demand for on-street charging infrastructure from locals, with UK EV registrations up 139% in 2021 compared to last year already.
Funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 100 new on-street EV chargers from Connected Kerb will be installed as part for the project, which aims to serve the 40% of people in the UK without any off-street EV charging options.
According to Connected Kerb, drivers without off-street parking cannot benefit from smart energy tariffs, which shave hundreds of pounds off the cost of charging every year.
However, smart metering is designed to enable EVs to schedule charging at times when energy prices are cheapest, such as overnight when demand is low, or on sunny and windy days when there is an abundance of supply due to additional solar and wind energy.
Thus, Agile Streets intends to demonstrate the use of a smart metering system as a new business model to manage public EV charging sustainably, incentivising EV drivers to allow a flexible charging schedule, normally reserved for those with home charging.
Participating drivers will download the Connected Kerb app to charge as they go. This could reportedly reduce the cost of EV charging by as much as 40% for people without driveways – equivalent to savings of up to £290 a year.
“Easy access to affordable charging infrastructure is one of the biggest barriers to the uptake of EVs,” said Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb. “The number of smart energy tariffs has exploded in recent years thanks to increasing demand from EV owners, making charging at home one of the most affordable ways to travel today.
“However, almost half of us don’t have that privilege and instead rely on public charging infrastructure, which is often more expensive.
“It is vital that access to affordable energy is equitable across the entire population – driveway or not – and this project does just that, giving drivers in Shropshire without off-street parking the same benefits as everyone else.”
The trial will run from October 2021 until May 2022. Once the trial is over, the 100 chargers will be handed over to the local councils, providing on-street EV charging infrastructure for future use, with the aim of increasing EV uptake ahead of the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles.
Local residents who have not yet gone electric but wish to participate in the scheme can still sign up to take part by accessing an electric car from electric car subscription service Onto, offering up to 50% off for the first two months.
