INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared Surrey member, Accelogress, together with consortium partners Urban Data Collective (another SETsquared Surrey member), Transport for West Midlands and Snap Out, has been awarded £359K of Innovate UK funding to develop their Electric Vehicle (EV) Reserve and Charge platform.

The funding will facilitate Electric Vehicle charging solutions for EV drivers, helping the uptake of Electric Vehicles (EVs) by providing greater choice and convenience in terms of the availability of EV charging stations.

Ralf Kernchen, Founder and CEO of Accelogress, realised that although there is much greater consumer interest and a government focus on encouraging EV purchase, one of the main barriers for people to buying an electric vehicle relates to EV range anxiety and a lack of charging infrastructure.

Customers will download an app which will contain information on a network of chargers from the ChargePoint providers, who are signed up and sharing the data on the Accelogress platform (via the Urban Data Collective UDX platform). Sensors located in the parking spaces, and charge point hardware, will collect and share information on whether a vehicle is parked in the space, whether it’s charging and how long it’s going to be charging for. To prevent people using these charging parking spaces when they’re not actually driving an EV or they’re not charging, traffic wardens and parking enforcers will be looped into the system.

Ralf said: “What happens if I get part way through my journey, and I am unable to charge my vehicle? There is currently a shortage of EV charging points and many are out of service, meaning that people can arrive after work and have to queue or struggle to find an’ in service’ charging point. We are looking to join the dots and provide a service that means people can plan their journeys, their charging locations, and times in one simple app.  Working once again with Transport for West Midlands, and engaging with charge point hardware providers we are installing sensors at multiple charge point locations. A user can either search in advance and book ahead, seeing which ports are in service, or arrive and see real time which ports are available.”

Ralf further comments: “Once you have the app, you can plan your journey from home before you leave and also plan along your route, looking at where you might like to stop and book a charging space and a charger. If your journey plan changes, you can then easily rearrange the booking. The service is completely flexible, and you will pay for use through the app.  The sensors talk to either your mobile phone or a gadget you can have in the car. This notifies you that you’ve arrived in the right charging space, creating convenient, stress free, more environmentally friendly journeys in electric vehicles.”

The prototype will be ready according to the Innovate UK agreed schedule in March and Accelogress have completed some trials already.