A project that will aim to break down the barriers that people face in charging electric vehicles at home has been given the green light after grant funding was awarded to Oxfordshire County Council and ODS.
The project will test a new solution to help people who don’t have access to a driveway to charge an electric car using their own home power supply. Funding has been awarded by Innovate UK and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles. Volunteers from Oxford City and Cherwell are being sought to take part in the trial.
“The new administration at the County Council is determined to tackle climate change and make the county an acknowledged centre of innovation in the process. Dealing with practical day to day obstacles that prevent people from being able to confidently purchase electric vehicles is one area where we would like to see progress.
“This project will support the delivery of our recently adopted Oxfordshire Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, and the vision of the zero carbon transport system by 2050. We are on the lookout for residents to come forward as volunteers in Oxford City and Cherwell to take part in this trial with us.
“Oxfordshire is ahead of the UK curve in its transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to cleaner, greener electric vehicles, with over 6000 electric and ‘ultra-low emissions vehicles’, currently on our roads. We know that electric vehicle uptake is going to increase in the next five years in Oxfordshire, but a lack of suitable charging can be a barrier, especially for the estimated 30-40 per cent of Oxfordshire residents who have no access to off-street parking and can’t install a home charger. This trial will have those people especially in mind. I look forward to seeing them begin.”
Ubitricity Electric Avenue project lamppost charging (Image: Siemens)
Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change Delivery and Environment.
The project is the continuation of a successful 2020 scheme that ran in partnership with ODS, the Local Authority Trading Company, owned by Oxford City Council. ODS has a mission of ‘doing good business that’s good for everyone’, by finding innovative ways to deliver profitable and sustainable growth that brings genuine benefits to people, communities and the planet.
The University of Oxford predicts that sales of electric vehicles is likely to reach approximately 90 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2025 and 100 per cent before 2030. This means by 2025, there could be up to 40,000 electric vehicles on Oxfordshire’s roads and 100,000 by 2035.
The new project will test on-street electric vehicle charging using a specially designed ‘gully’ or channel, installed into the pavement. The gully allows residents to safely connect their electric vehicle to their home electricity supply when parked outside their home. The channel is seamlessly integrated into the pavement and has been designed so that cables will not cause a trip or slip hazard. Compared to installing electric charger bollards on the street, the arrangement causes less street clutter, especially where pavements are narrow, and it is much cheaper to install.
Connecting to a household’s own electricity supply means charging is cheaper and more convenient than using an on-street chargepoint, and also means that residents with solar panels can charge their EVs directly from their own renewable energy supply. The design builds on the learnings of the Go Ultra Low Oxford – a project led by Oxford City Council in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, and funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The trial, which was described as being of ‘global significance’, trialled five different charging technologies for 18 residents across Oxford. Phase 1 of the trial found that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for on-street charging, but that the combination of a home charger and simple cable gully solution was the cheapest and most highly utilised solution.
Read more: Oxford City Council
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