British Gas has launched Green Drive Nov 2020, a new smart time-of-use tariff for electric vehicle users.

It offers cheaper electricity for seven hours, between 12.30am and 7.30am, for users to charge their car.

Electric vehicle drivers use up to 80% more electricity if they charge at home, according to British Gas. They can benefit from tariffs which pass on cheaper overnight wholesale electricity costs.

“Customers who choose this tariff will have peace of mind that if they charge their electric car overnight they can take advantage of lower prices. We want to offer our customers different types of tariffs that suit their individual needs and help them understand their energy usage.

“This is our first residential EV product. Over the coming months, we will launch further electric vehicle charging services to both residential and business customers,” said Peter Simon, customer propositions and product director at British Gas.

The smart tariff is dual fuel, fixed until November 2020 and has no exit fees.

Source: Fleet News

A £25m battery storage facility which could bring fast chargers for electric vehicles to the city has been given the go-ahead.

Pivot Power, along with the National Grid, applied to South Norfolk Council for a 49.9MW battery facility next to a substation on Ipwich Road at Dunston.

It will be one of the first 45 sites across the UK that will combine 50MW batteries with rapid EV charging stations, which it is hoped will encourage more drivers to make the move to electric cars.

Matthew Boulton, chief operating officer of Pivot Power, said:

“We want to support councils working to clean up air pollution, promote low-carbon policies and develop a sustainable economy with better services for local people. Close collaboration will ensure that we build the right infrastructure in the right place to make it easy for drivers, businesses and public services to switch to electric vehicles.”

It is hoped the site will be operating by April 2020, and will store enough electricity to supply almost 6,000 homes for a day from a single charge.

The Norwich site – which will be surrounded by a security fence and will be fitted with CCTV – comes as part of a £1.6bn programme to set up a national network of batteries fed by National Grid sub stations.

A response from the council’s senior conservation and design officer said while nearby Dunston Hall is a grade II listed building, the separation meant there will be little visibility between the two sites.

South Norfolk Council approved the bid on November 7.

Read more: EDP24

Utilities, automakers and big oil companies will drive the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, according to a new report by EY, which warns that despite market uncertainty, investment needs to be made or “it’s highly likely they’ll be late to the party”.

‘Driving the electric vehicle revolution’, released as part of the consultancy’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) publication, suggests that the key investors in the future of e-mobility have already been determined.

However, they face considerable uncertainty over how quickly EVs will displace traditional vehicles, and how what forms of charging will actually be required. Investment now could see heavy losses from low utilisation, or lead to stranded assets if the wrong charging infrastructure is deployed.

Much has been made of the split between home, workplace and destination, and public charging networks, with many in the UK sector expecting public charging to be the least utilisation option.

However, those deploying such infrastructure have suggested that this will be needed to solve the issue of range anxiety for drivers concerned their EVs won’t make the distances required, while also being used to meet current driving behaviour which sees people ‘fill up’ at petrol station-like EV charging hubs.

According to Michael Cahill, management consultant at EY, the danger to any investors in this space will be in not acting soon enough to capture a portion of the market.

“If they don’t invest now, it’s highly likely they’ll be late to the party. But, equally, players might not want to risk investing too early and narrowly in a market where technology and policy is constantly developing,” he said.

Read more: Current News

ScottishPower has launched an ‘end-to-end’ electric vehicle deal alongside a car retailer to offer drivers an EV of their choice with an installation of a home charger, powered with green electricity.

Following last month’s announcement that the company had sold its gas and hydro assets to be 100% powered by wind, the company has continued its shift to decarbonised technologies with the new agreement with vehicle dealership Arnold Clark.

This will allow buyers to purchase or lease an EV, book a home installation of a charge point from Wallbox, and sign up to an exclusive 100% renewable electricity tariff as part of the same package.

ScottishPower’s chief executive Keith Anderson said:

“After removing carbon from how we generate electricity we believe the decarbonisation of the UK’s transport system has to be next. This means industry and government working together to build the infrastructure so we can charge electric vehicles as well as building clean and cheap renewables to bring down the cost of motoring.

“The UK needs to decarbonise transport faster and we have to make the switch to electric vehicles simpler.”

Read more: Current News