The Government has announced it is investing £37m into developing the UK’s electric chargepoint infrastructure.

Twelve projects will receive a share of the funding, to support the creation of innovations including wireless charging technologies, meaning electric vehicles of the future could charge without the need to plug in a cable.

Future of mobility minister Michael Ellis said: “We’re charging up the transport revolution and investing in technologies to transform the experience for electric vehicle drivers.

“Ensuring the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is reliable and innovative is encouraging more people to join the record numbers of ultra-low emission vehicle users already on UK roads.”

The Road to Zero strategy sets out new measures to clean up road transport and lead the world in developing, manufacturing and using zero emission road vehicles. Through funding these projects, the government is incentivising drivers to move towards buying electric vehicles, supporting the key aims of the strategy.

Urban Foresight, a smart city consultancy, has been awarded over £3m with Urban Electric to demonstrate Urban Electric’s ‘pop-up’ changing hubs, which are built into the pavement and provide a discreet, safe and low-cost charging solution for electric vehicle drivers without access to off-street parking.

Other projects to receive funding include:

• a renovation project, installing chargepoints in car parks to allow for mass charging at night;

• a project leveraging existing Virgin Media physical and online infrastructure to deliver cost-effective and widespread charging, using high speed internet connections to better share information online on charging progress and parking spaces; and

• a cutting edge storage and advanced electronics project that will deliver semi-rapid charging using a low power grid connection minimising the need for costly substation upgrades.

Char.gy, an electric charging company, has been awarded more than £2.3m and will use the funding to develop wireless charging technology on residential streets without the need for trailing cables and additional infrastructure.

Richard Stobart, CEO of Char.gy, said: “Our consortium is delighted to be funded by Innovate UK to demonstrate induction charging on residential streets in Milton Keynes, the London Borough of Redbridge and Buckinghamshire County. Working in collaboration with the Open University and The University of Warwick’s WMG we are excited to show that our ability to retrofit to existing electric vehicles and enable several parking bays per lamp column without the need for cables will accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.”

Keith Johnston, co-founder of Urban Electric, said: “On behalf of the ‘Clean Streets’ consortium we are delighted to be a winner in the Innovate UK Electric Vehicle Charging For Public Spaces competition. Together with our partners Urban Foresight, Co-wheels, Duku and AppyParking we look forward to demonstrating Urban Electric’s pop-up charging hubs in Dundee and Plymouth and to bringing residential on-street charging for the 50% of people that park on-street at night in cities one step closer to reality.”

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