EV Assist - Using Travel Demand to Improve EV Customer Experience & Load Balance Chargepoint Utilisation

**EV Assist combines Electric Vehicle user needs with a novel changepoint availability and reservations system, to catalyse modal shift, create a demand-driven EV charging marketplace, optimise infrastructure utilisation and accelerate carbon neutrality.**

95% of respondents to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) survey that informed of our OLEV funded 'EV Assist' feasibility study, voiced concerns about the availability and accessibility of chargepoints. The study highlighted the diversity of people's potential EV charging requirements, for trips to workplaces, retail parks, education, and healthcare institutions, cultural events, and high street businesses. These challenges are compounded by the lack of adequate charging facilities at many destinations and the fact that \>40% of UK homes don't have access to a private residential chargepoint. Laura Shoaf, MD, WMCA, acknowledges, "In order to get to many destinations, electric vehicle users will have to plan on-street or workplace parking to recharge, or charge en-route."

Utilising an easily embedded plugin for websites or apps, EV Assist will enable these types of destinations to provide assurances to prospective visitors that they will be able to reach them and be able to get back again. Travel demand data captured via EV Assist allows Charge Point Operators (CPOs) to understand prospective customers' intended routes and reason for travel, and in turn, to offer clear, viable, end-to-end EV travel solutions that optimise public chargepoint network utilisation.

Leading EV researcher, Dr. Florimond Guéniat, states, "The biggest barrier to EV adoption is range and charge anxiety. Destinations that offer changepoint reservations will increase patronage and help to distribute demand, whilst spearheading the roadmap to a carbon neutrality".

Through regional in-market deployments with WMCA and ESB Energy, Phase 2 aims to catalyse this multi-sided market, acting as a data exchange between EV users and CPOs, innovatively facilitated through integration with the destinations they plan to visit. This includes EV routing for UK City of Culture 2021 venues and events being added to the incumbent 'Travel Assistant' technology developed by 'You. Smart. Thing.' (YST). Uniquely, it will deliver tailored routes via _available_ chargepoints. An EV Assist travel demand management dashboard will enable CPOs to bid for customers based on real-time demand, thus maximising asset utilisation and giving electric vehicle users the best possible deal. It is an investment that will spur EV adoption, accelerate the roadmap to a carbon neutral future, improve air quality in towns and cities and support economic growth across the UK.