Working to a greenprint

NEWS IN BRIEF

Electric car hire launches in County Durham

Residents in County Durham can now hire an electric vehicle for the day, as part of a new car club service. The county council has been working with Derwent Valley Car Club to help it launch the service in Shotley Bridge.

The car club has three fully electric cars available to borrow, which residents can hire for an hour up to a full day. It costs £5 a month to join the scheme and the hire rate is £4 per hour for the first three hours, then £3 for every hour after that, or £30 to hire the car for a day. There is no geographical limit as to who can join the scheme.

Croydon’s Climate Action Plan EV roll-out

Croydon Council is on track to meet the target set out in its Climate Action Plan of installing at least 400 chargepoints by the end of 2022. Three months into the year, the council has 152 chargepoints, over a third of its target, already live.

The latest on-street tranche, installed, operated and maintained by Liberty Charge, includes 44 rapid chargepoints. It is a part of the governmentfunded Virgin Park and Charge (VPACH) scheme.

Locations of on-street charging points were driven by resident requests, supported by Liberty Charge’s own data that informs on factors such as density of EV ownership, site pavement widths and the technical elements of onstreet installation.

Edinburgh brings in charging fees

The City of Edinburgh Council is introducing tariffs for using its electric vehicle chargers from 1 May. The fees, which will be displayed at existing charging points, were agreed as part of the budget-setting process earlier this year. Any revenue generated will be used to fund the ongoing costs associated with electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In March the council began work to introduce 81 chargers (141 bays) in residential streets and park & ride sites. They will be available for use by summer.

Volvo tests wireless charging

Gothenburg taxis will act as test-beds

Volvo Cars is integrating and testing wireless charging technology in a live city environment, evaluating its potential for future electric cars.

Over a three-year period, a small fleet of fully electric Volvo XC40 Recharge cars will be used as taxis by Cabonline, a taxi operator in the Nordic region, and charged wirelessly at stations in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The wireless charging test is one of many projects outlined within the strategic initiative Gothenburg Green City Zone, under which designated areas within the city are used as live test beds for the development of sustainable technologies.

“Gothenburg Green City Zone lets us try exciting new technologies in a real environment and evaluate them over time for a potential future broader introduction,” said Mats Moberg, head of research and development at Volvo Cars.

“Testing new charging technologies together with selected partners is a good way to evaluate alternative charging options for our future cars.”

The charging stations used in the test are delivered by Momentum Dynamics, a leading provider of wireless electric charging systems. The charging starts automatically when a compatible vehicle parks over a charging pad embedded in the street, allowing drivers to conveniently charge without getting out of their car.

The charging station sends energy through the charging pad, which is picked up by a receiver unit in the car. To easily align the car with the charging pad, Volvo Cars will use its 360-degree camera system. For the fully electric XC40 Recharge cars, the wireless charging power will be more than 40kW, making the charging speeds around four times faster than a wired 11kW AC charger and almost as fast as a wired 50kW DC fast charger.

In total, the Volvo cars will be used for more than 12 hours a day and drive 100,000km per year, which also makes this the first durability test of fully electric Volvo cars in a commercial usage scenario.

Volvo XC40 Recharge taxis in Gothenburg

Egg launches home charging subscription

Renewable energy brand Egg has launched a subscriptionbased charging service that will enable EV drivers to charge their cars at home for £30 per month.

The monthly fee includes standard installation of a home charging unit and free maintenance call-outs within two working days.

Installation will require access to off-street parking such as a driveway or garage.

The launch comes as the government’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) draws to a close for many homeowners on 31 March.

The EVHS grant contributed up to 75% of the cost of installing a home chargepoint, capped at £350. Without EVHS, the average cost of hardware and installation for a fast home chargepoint is estimated to be in excess of £1,000, according to independent EV charging comparison site www.RightCharge.co.uk.

“The reality of buying an electric vehicle is that it involves a lot of research and a considerable upfront cost. EVs are an unknown entity to most drivers and the second-hand market is presently very small, though growing,” says Egg chief executive Thomas Newby. “Installing a home chargepoint should be the most painless part of the process. Egg’s proposition is simple – one affordable, monthly cost that keeps your car moving and offers complete peace of mind.”

The company said paying monthly offers flexibility for customers, especially those who might be considering a house move, or company car drivers who are personally responsible for the cost of installing a home charger if opting for an EV.

The 7kW fast chargers are designed to be compatible with all makes of EV.

Thomas Newby

Electric Forecourt Norwich opens

Gridserve unveils electric-only for East of England

Electric vehicle charging network operator Gridserve has opened an Electric Forecourt with 36 chargers in Norwich. The forecourt is located at Broadland Gate Business Park in Postwick. It hosts 22 high-power chargers with up to 350kW of power, eight Tesla Superchargers and six low power AC chargers to cater for every type of EV.

The Electric Forecourt is designed to be an EV experience destination, where visitors without electric cars can find out more about them, and chat with impartial ‘EV Gurus’ about charging or vehicle leasing options, whilst enjoying well-known brands including Costa Coffee, M&S Food and WHSmith, along with super-fast Wi-Fi and bookable meeting pods.

The Norwich Electric Forecourt more than doubles the number of high-powered chargers in the region. Norwich and the wider East of England region currently have comparatively low EV charger coverage compared to other regions in the UK, hosting just 29 chargers per 100,000 people compared to the UK average of 42 per 100,000 people, or 102 per 100,000 people in London.

The immediate 10km radius area also has over 40,000 households with no access to off-street parking to accommodate home charging. The result is that currently EVs only account for 1% of cars on the road in the Norwich area. In addition, Norwich has received government funding to assess the viability of a zeroemission zone in the city in a bid to cut air pollution from the city centre. If the plan goes ahead, all petrol and diesel vehicles could be banned from the city, making emission free electric vehicles essential.

Gridserve said the facility will help EV drivers to access the city centre and improve connections to surrounding areas such as Ipswich, Cambridge and Peterborough.

The Norwich Electric Forecourt showcases electric motoring. Test drives of electric cars can be booked via its EV experience centre.

Toddington Harper, chief executive of Gridserve, said: “Giving drivers the confidence to switch to an electric vehicle and enabling a widespread transition away from fossil fuel vehicles is a central aim of our Electric Forecourts. That’s why we have put the consumer at the heart of our design, with our Electric Forecourts serving the needs of local communities in their transition to electric vehicles.

“The Norwich Electric Forecourt showcases a brand new design, where we have been able to provide both charging and a great customer experience in a smaller footprint than our first site at Braintree. By elevating the facilities above the chargers, we make the best use of the space available and are able to deliver a great EV experience without compromise, even when space is at a premium and sites are more constrained.”

The Electric Forecourt in Norwich

Extra MSA Group builds IONITY network

IONITY chargers at an Extra MSA Group service area

Extra MSA Group has partnered with the IONITY charging network to launch high-power charging stations for electric vehicles at all its motorway service areas (MSAs) across the UK.

The network will help ensure that Extra MSA customers can access ultrafast charging points when undertaking long-distance journeys.

IONITY is on track to deliver six highpowered chargers at each site ahead of the UK government’s 2023 target. IONITY and Extra MSA Group have already installed 38 charging points with a high-speed charging capacity of up to 350kW across all eight of its MSA locations, with more to follow at existing and proposed new MSA developments.

The IONITY charging stations are geographically spread from Cullompton in the South, to Leeds Skelton Lake in the North.

Andrew Long, chief executive of Extra MSA Group, said: “Technology is rapidly advancing and Extra MSA Group is delighted to be embracing this, working in conjunction with IONITY, which is successfully delivering some of the highest-powered charging stations on the motorway network.

“At Extra MSA Group, we are committed to providing all road users with a safe environment to take a break from their journeys, rest and refuel in high quality, comfortable facilities. Our work with IONITY further enhances these overall objectives.”

Andreas Atkins, country manager UK & Ireland at IONITY, added: “IONITY’s continued partnership with Extra MSA Group demonstrates our commitment to drive forward the transition to electric mobility. Our state-of-the-art high-power charging technology will enable drivers to travel hassle-free across the country and charge their EV in the time it takes them to enjoy a cup of coffee at the Extra facilities.

“Serving up to 350kW charging capacity, our chargers work rapidly using 100% renewable energy –making for not only emission-free but carbon neutral driving and the installation of these in a network that connects drivers right across the country will make for a future of reliable journeys and quick stops for sustainable vehicles.”

All electricity supplied is from 100% renewable sources to achieve high environmental standards. All of Extra MSA Group’s locations also have the capacity to increase the number of EV charging points as customer demand increases.

IONITY builds and operates a highpower charging (HPC) network along Europe’s highways, using state-of-theart technology with a charging capacity of up to 350 kW. IONITY was founded in 2017 and is a joint venture by BMW Group, Mercedes Benz AG, Ford Motor Company, Hyundai Motor Group and the Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche.The company is headquartered in Munich with an additional office in Oslo, Norway.