Completed Clean Energy Economics & Business

Ultra low cost EV charging socket with smart rebilling

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A new ultra-low-cost charging socket lets businesses install EV chargers for a fraction of the current price and automatically bill visiting drivers for the electricity they use. The UK needs hundreds of thousands more public charging points to meet its 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales. A 2021 survey found 56 per cent of car buyers cited the poor charging network as a reason not to go electric. Installing a standard destination charger—the kind found at hotels, supermarkets, or car parks—remains expensive, and many hosts worry about absorbing electricity costs for strangers. This project tackles both barriers directly. If successful, the socket could cut the cost of a destination charger by an order of magnitude. The smart rebilling system means the host pays nothing for the visitor’s charge, removing the financial disincentive. More chargers in more places would reduce range anxiety and accelerate EV adoption, helping cut the 8 per cent of UK emissions that currently come from cars. The project is not fundamental science; it is an engineering solution aimed at a practical infrastructure bottleneck.

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In order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change we must limit global warming to 1.5°C. In 2021, 8% of UK emissions were from cars. Consequently, the government aims to ensure 100% of new car sales are electric by 2035\. Unfortunately, the high cost of installing charging infrastructure is limiting the availability of EV chargers, causing EV sales to stall. 56 per cent of 'What Car?' readers surveyed cited the UKs poor charging network as a reason for not going electric, with range anxiety also a primary concern. Destination charging is an ideal solution to both these problems, but uptake is limited by the cost of the charger and fears around electricity bills for the host. Our mission is to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles by radically increasing the number of destination chargers in the UK. We'll enable this by developing our ultra low cost destination charger with smart rebilling, facilitating an order of magnitude reduction in the cost of destination chargers. Our ultra low cost, easy to install charging solution will allow the host to pass on the cost of electricity usage to a visiting EV driver. This creates a compelling incentive to install a destination charger, increasing the number of charging points in the UK, and in turn the uptake of EVs.

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Original classification

Collaborative R&D

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