As demand for electric vehicles continues to surge, the race to provide requisite charge points to cater for the growing number of battery car models coming to market is also heating up, as two novel EV charging infrastructure initiatives launched this month in the United Kingdom serve to demonstrate.
In London, start-up firm Trojan Energy is installing 200 “underground” EV chargers across the boroughs of Brent and Camden. Aiming to avoid cluttering streets pavements with additional clutter, each charge point is slotted into the ground and only becomes visible when a vehicle is charging, according to the firm.
Set for installation across the two boroughs between now and spring, the technology consists of two parts: a charge point slotted into the ground, and a “lance” inserted into the charge point in order to charge. The connection can provide charge rates from 2kW to 22kW, with up to 18 chargers able to run in parallel from a single electricity network connection, Trojan Energy said.
The intiative forms part of the Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways project (STEP), a consortium including Trojan Energy, energy consultancy specialists Element Energy, electricity distributor UK Power Networks, and the University of Leeds, which has been awarded $3.92 million in co-funding by government innovation agency Innovate UK.
If the initiative proves successful, Trojan Energy claims entire streets could be filled with its charging technology, offering drives the ability to charge up their EV no matter where they part on the road. Moreover, EV owners also may be able to use spare car battery capacity to provide services to electricity network operators, which could drive down the cost of owning and running EVs, added the firm, run by a team of former oil engineers.Each charge point is slotted into the ground and only becomes visible when a vehicle is charging.
Elsewhere in the U.K., too, another project is aiming to install innovative EV charging points, starting at a new 3,000-home development near Swindon. Designed by specialists Connected Kerb, these charging units also are housed beneath the ground, but connected to a small plug-in socket or wireless charging pad above the surface, thereby minimizing the ground space required compared to traditional charging points.