The need for a unified charging infrastructure and how to reach this through the implementation of government initiatives was discussed at yesterday’s AW Briefing conference in London. cars21.com, official media partner, summarises main outcomes

The London-based research and conferencing organisation, AW Briefing, conducted a seminar focusing on electric vehicle infrastructure and how to charge the future of transport. The latest charging technology as well as government initiatives were presented by Elektromotive, Transport for London, EDF Energy, and more.

Greg Simmons, Technical Director, Elektromotive Limited: The charging requirements of intelligent infrastructure
Founded in 2003, the UK-based company is dedicated to designing and installing technology for recharging electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Simmons presented the Elektrobay, a recharging station for use on the street, in multi-storey car park, the workplace and the home charging. This has already been operational in the field for 3 years. His forecast for number of EVs in the UK by 2020 includes several different scenarios: with no additional incentive for electric vehicles he predicts 70,000 EVs on the street however with a significant intervention and very high demand he predicts almost 2,600,000 EVs. Based on his scenario of 1,2 million EVs he expects a potential of 915,00 charging stations in the UK alone.

Simmons pointed out that charging station manufacturers have to work together to ensure technical compatibility between the different recharging points and that Elektromotive has started this process already.

Marie-Barbe Girard, Transport for London: Turning London Electric
Girard started her presentation by explaining why the transformation of transport in London is an important issue for the local government body. She stated that electric vehicles not only reduce the CO2 emissions and improve the air quality in London but also reduce the noise pollution and protect from volatile oil prices. Moreover, they give financial benefits to the Londoners by lowering fuel costs and taxes. Girard envisions London as the perfect city to implement the first EV programmes since 99% of returned car trips in London are less than 100 miles, a high proportion of likely early adopters lives here and the government offers strong incentives.

Next, she presented London’s EV delivery plan that targets 25,000 charging points by 2015, a majority of these points would be at the workplace but also 2,500 in car parks and on the street. The city of London targets 100,000 EVs (5%) “as soon as possible” including 1,000 EVs in the London government fleet by 2015. This will be reached by marketing and incentives such as free parking, exemption of congestion charge or supporting the adoption by councils, business, car clubs and Londoners.

Bethan Carver, Head of Partnerships and Affinities: Challenges and solutions for the plug-in vehicle market
Bethan started off by mentioning that the EDF Group has already 50 years of experience and is operating the largest fleet of electric vehicles. For the next year there are several field trials planned, including 60 electric smarts in London from April, 100 Toyota PHEVs in Strasbourg, and other tests with the electric Mini in Paris and Nice.

Carver added that demand management will be required to encourage off-peak charging through smart metering and pricing structures. However, she underlined that even if everyone is charging their cars at the same time they will not pose a problem for the electric utility companies in the coming years. Tomorrows charging infrastructure in her opinion has to be and will be cheap and easy as well as universal and standardised.