The results of Oxford’s on-street retractable EV charging hub trial have been announced by start-up Urban Electric.
From the post-trial survey conducted by Oxford City Council, respondents scored the pop-up chargers 4.3 out of 5 when asked if they would recommend them to family or a friend.
Qualitative feedback indicated that reliability, access and availability were the most important factors to consider when providing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Councillor Tom Hayes, cabinet member for Zero Carbon Oxford, Oxford City Council, said “The learning from this trial will help Urban Electric to shape the future of the EV charging infrastructure industry, and I am thrilled that Oxford was able to be a part of through being the first city to trial this world’s first technology.
“I am looking forward to seeing how pop-up street charging develops in the future.”
According to Urban Electric, its pop-up charging hubs were developed specifically to solve the problem of at-home charging for the “43% of UK households who have to park their cars and light goods vehicles on-street”.
Read more: Oxford trials world’s first retractable on-street EV chargers
The hubs have been designed primarily for overnight kerbside charging, when cars are parked for 12 hours or more in the street where people live.
The app-operated charge points deliver 7kW at each socket and retract fully underground when not in use.
Designed for 90% of residential streets, no charging cable or equipment is required to operate the posts.
Read more: World-first pop-up EV charging points trialled on UK street
The trial was conducted in association with Oxford City Council, Co-wheels Car Club and product design agency and manufacturer Duku.
It was funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and administered by Innovate UK.
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