A business backed by Deborah Meaden of Dragons’ Den has begun trialling an innovative domestic electric vehicle charging system with its latest local authority partner.
Central Bedfordshire Council began piloting Kerbo Charge’s under-pavement cable channel at 20 locations last month.
Kerbo Charge, in which the television entrepreneur has invested £50,000, is one of two start-ups promoting similar technologies to local authorities.
Central Bedfordshire has also trialled ODS’s Gul-e solution and plans to compare both products and feedback from users to decide how it moves forward with electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Kerbo Charge is also working with Milton Keynes, Durham, Reading, West Berkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Hartlepool, while ODS – an independent spin-off from Oxford City Council’s direct services contractor – has partnered with the likes of Surrey, Oxfordshire, Bromley, Solihull, and Buckinghamshire.
Both systems offer motorists without driveways but with parking outside their house a way to charge their EV without causing a trip hazard, using a covered 32mm-deep duct in the pavement. When they want to charge, householders open the channel and drop the cable in. Kerbo Charge and ODS cooperate with local authorities and their highways contractors to install the infrastructure outside the homes of those who apply.
Kerbo Charge says its channel is designed to work with the UK’s “wonky” pavements as it can flex to remain flush with the pavement surface. It says that in addition to its live trials with eight local authorities, it has “many more in the pipeline”.
