The UK government has announced a £37m (€41.13m) investment in engineering projects aimed at improving electric vehicle infrastructure.
The UK engineering investment was announced yesterday, 9 July, the anniversary of the government’s Road to Zero strategy for a nationwide transition to zero emissions transport. The funding will be divided between 12 initiatives, aimed at promoting uptake of electric vehicles by UK residents by upgrading existing infrastructure to support the specific needs of electric vehicle drivers.
Future of Mobility Minister Michael Ellis said: “We’re charging up the transport revolution and investing in technologies to transform the experience for electric vehicle drivers. Ensuring the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is reliable and innovative is encouraging more people to join the record numbers of ultra-low emission vehicle users already on UK roads.”
Smart city consultancy Urban Foresight, in partnership with urban electric vehicle charging innovator Urban Electric, received £3m (€3.34m) under the UK engineering investment to deploy ‘pop-up’ charging hubs developed by Urban Electric in urban areas.
Urban Electric co-founder Keith Johnston said: “On behalf of the ‘Clean Streets’ consortium we are delighted to be a winner in the Innovate UK Electric Vehicle Charging For Public Spaces competition. Together with our partners Urban Foresight, Co-wheels, Duku and AppyParking we look forward to demonstrating Urban Electric’s pop-up charging hubs in Dundee and Plymouth and to bringing residential on-street charging for the 50% of people that park on street at night in cities one step closer to reality.”
The UK engineering investment awarded £2.3m (€2.56m) to charging firm Char.gy, which aims to produce wireless charging capability to be deployed on residential streets.
Richard Stobart, CEO of Char.gy, said: “Our consortium is delighted to be funded by Innovate UK to demonstrate induction charging on residential streets in Milton Keynes, the London Borough of Redbridge and Buckinghamshire County. Working in collaboration with the Open University and The University of Warwick’s WMG we are excited to show that our ability to retrofit to existing electric vehicles and enable several parking bays per lamp column without the need for cables will accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.”
