On-street EV Charging - Emerging Technologies
LAMP POST CHARGING
Cities have developed a smart way of introducing vehicle charge points to existing lamp posts. This service utilises existing infrastructure and therefore costs are kept low with the first service in the UK being Ubitricity. Similar service providers have emerged to provide a competitive offering City EV, Rolec StreetCharge & Char.gy.
EV charging requires a multi-faceted approach and this technology covers an area where charging may have not been possible at all, however the strategy does have limitations on the speed of the charger being installed due to utilising street lighting infrastructure that was only designed to keep the lights on, rather than power 10 taxis.
WIRELESS KERBSIDE CHARGING
The wireless charging provision on cars is becoming more common, however there is still a lot of development and investment required to aid this role-out.
Houses without access to driveways or allocated parking will benefit from induction chargers being installed within street parking bays.
The idea provides the most effortless solution to parking and charging your car; however, it is likely this technology is a development of having a charge post at your parking spot. Councils and developers are encouraged to achieve getting power to these spaces first. Whether a charging post or below ground induction charger is installed can be worried about later.
POP UP CHARGERS
Pop up chargers are an exciting prospect to minimise street furniture and the possibility of street chargers cluttering our streets. These innovative units are concealed flush at ground level and rise in the when required.
A recent trial by Oxford City Council utilised units developed by Urban Electric.
TROJAN LANCE CONCEALED CHARGERS
Another exciting concept developed by a UK based company Trojan Energy is the idea of a connection point and ‘lance’. The idea works by having a connection confirm flush with the ground and thus avoiding tripping hazards and minimising visual impact. Owners with electric cars then own the ‘lance’ and use this to bridge a connection between the ground mounted point and the cars charging cable.
KERBSIDE HOME CHARGER
A post on Twitter highlighted that Thanet District Council gave permission to the twitter user @EVMaps to install an EV charger at the kerbside in front of the user’s house.
The charging post was fed from the house of the car owner; however, cabling was run across the pathway. To finish off, the council allowed a dedicated bay to be created and marked ‘EV Permit Holder’.
Although this ended with a neat install, the likelihood of all councils allowing this is unlikely due to the potential issues with ownership liability and access to existing services below our pathways (water, gas, telecoms etc).
CABLE GULLEYS
A lot of terraced UK homes are familiar with a drainage gulley leading from the front of their house to the road gully. Oxford city Council carried out trials of different solutions to our home charging woes and one of these included replacing the drainage gulley to combine the existing drainage purpose with a slot to contain a charging cable as well. Oxford councils trial found that this was a very simple and neat solution, and the success has led to additional funding being given to ODS and Oxford Council to develop this concept further, with the project being named Ox Gul-e project.
The idea is for the car charger to be mounted on the front of the terraced house. The charger cable will then travel from this to the car via the drainage gully. An element of error by the user installing the cable within the gully remains a risk to the viability of this strategy, as any potential trip/ injury caused by a dislodged gully cover will be at the mercy of someone’s liability.
ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGE CHANNEL
Expanding on the successful elements of the drainage gulley, another UK based company have innovated a unique method and product for crossing the public footpath. The Patent Pending idea involves recessing channel (named EVCC) below the ground. The car charger will be permanently mounted on the front face of the car owners house and a cable will be permanently installed within the cannel, ready for connection to the vehicle via an exit point at the kerb edge.
The product has been developed in associated with Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Salford.
Any potential large-scale uptake will involve addressing the same ownership/ liability issues found with the cable gulley’s. The issue of allocating spaces on existing streets that are unallocated is also likely to be another hurdle to cross. If these things can be addressed by the local authorities, then this product is a strong contender for the solution to home with driveways or allocated parking bays.
OVERHEAD CHARGE POSTS
A new concept being produced and trialled in Holland is from a company called ChargeArm. This innovative idea involves installing a post within the garden of a terraced street. The cable from the car charger then travels up the post and over the footpath to the car location. The overhead element can be retracted when not in use as well as being out the way of wheelchairs, buggies, pedestrians etc when in use.
Although this does address the issue of trailing cable on footpaths and potential trip hazards, a product for terraced houses without a garden to mount the post is still to be clarified. This installation also limits the user to being able to park directly in front of their house at night and may be a problem in streets with unallocated parking.
There has not been a trial in the UK that we are aware of and clarification on the ownership/ liability for this would be required if a mass roll-out was considered.
ELECTRICITY TO YOUR CAR
For those needing a convenient solution to charging their car, portable battery charging solutions are available in the UK. The prominent player in the UK is Charge Fairy and similar services can be found throughout America which reinforces the demand for such a service.
For a fixed fee per month, Charge Fairy will deliver electricity from their bespoke van storage batteries to your car at any location. Although the cost of the electricity is likely to be substantially more expensive, the convenience may suit many EV users.
CABLES CROSSING THE PAVEMENT
All the above-mentioned emerging technologies are to avoid one problem for on street parking and that is crossing the pavement with trailing leads.
Anyone considering crossing a pathway with a cable need to understand that they become liable for any accident or incident that may occur because of it. Consideration also needs to be given to other pathway users.
Hampshire County Council are a local body that have issued guidance on doing this safely and have accepted the usage of a cable duct as an acceptable method. Many councils have advised against such use as the liability of any accidents is not clear. It is also a growing topic of conversation when considering wheelchair and buggy users and the difficulties crossing multiple cable ducts will cause.
All innovations to date require a shift in street management of some sort. Although most innovations address the issue with cables crossing the footpaths, they only suit the car being parked directly in front of the house. Anyone that has lived in a terraced street with on street parking will know the difficulties with this. If councils, consider dedicating bays to the EV user then this will be an unfair advantage to the remaining road users.
