Electric Vehicle Network Extender (EV-NetX)

"The EV-NETX project is seeking to address key barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs); the cost of infrastructure, the ease of use of that infrastructure, and the challenging business case for investing in that infrastructure.

Our current business model for EV charging is based around a margin on the energy sold through the network. This requires a well utilised asset and a high turnover of vehicles. This is in direct conflict with the user experience, as users will often require the parking space for longer than the charging event duration. This tension prevents the investor from maximising the utilisation of their asset and other drivers from accessing the charger, both inhibiting take-up of EVs.

A key advantage of EVs, is that through leveraging the established electricity grid, we can offer drivers the option to plug in every time they park their vehicles. This however, requires an oversupply of chargers, or a vehicle rotation policy. Some technology solutions have arisen around the deployment of mobile chargers linked to a battery. These however, come with the additional overheads required to move and operate the mobile charger.

Our solution builds on the existing charger network to increase the number of access points, without requiring the installation of additional chargers and the associated cost, until energy demand warrants it. By providing end users multiple sockets from one charging post, linked to a smart network, we are able to both offer a significant reduction in the cost of the infrastructure, improve the user experience by removing the need to move a charged vehicle and improve the utilisation of existing assets."