One of the main barriers to more widescale electric vehicle (EV) take-up in the UK is a lack of access to charging infrastructure.
Now, a new trial is underway that explores the potential of installing an EV chargepoint outside a person’s home, allowing them to park on the street but still use their domestic power supply for charging.
This could be particularly useful for people who want to charge their cars from home but have no private driveway on which to park their car.
Trojan Energy’s DoorSTEP project uses proprietary ‘flat and flush’ technology that places the company’s new Aon charging points just below the surface of the pavement.
They can be accessed using a ‘Trojan lance’ that connects the electric vehicle to the charger.
A similar STEP (Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways) trial located chargers that could be publicly accessed by users with the right technology to provide low-cost local charging.
The DoorSTEP version goes another step further by connecting the chargepoint equipment to an individual’s home electricity supply via an underground cable and a small control box.
Chargepoints provide a “highly innovative” solution
Project manager Oliver Robinson said that the chargepoints were “highly innovative” and provided a solution that was as convenient as home charging for EV users who didn’t have off-street parking.
He added that they hoped that tapping into domestic energy supplies could provide cheaper charging compared to other alternatives.
This in turn could help to improve take-up of electric vehicles.
The DoorSTEP trial will run from February until July next year and is currently looking for participants who will have the technology installed outside their property.
A total of 25 prototype units will be deployed across streets in Oxfordshire and the London Borough of Brent.
Councillor Pete Sudbury of Oxfordshire County Council said that one of the main barriers to getting an electric vehicle was the lack of a safe, secure spot for recharging.
According to a report by the Commons Transport Committee, an average of just 23 publicly available EV charging points are being installed nationwide each day.
Ministers pointed out that more than 24,000 were already available, with around 700 being added each month, but agreed that “the rate of deployment must accelerate to meet our ambitions”.
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