EV CHARGER SHARING GUIDANCE (USING CO-CHARGER)
Description
Co-charger is a system that helps EV owners without driveways or off-road parking charge their vehicles conveniently and cost-effectively using other people’s private chargers.
This helps overcome a major barrier to the uptake of EV’s amongst those without off-road charging facilities.
It also helps EV owners who share their chargers to make a modest income, and does all this with minimal additional infrastructure.
The system is described here.
There are two potential forms of operation; one uses individual’s private chargers, the other establishes a community charging hub where a business in a residential area installs domestic style chargers in their car park for use by residents out of operational hours.
EV charger sharing was not widely known about, and uptake will be slow due to the length of the car renewal cycle.
Mapping / Research
HVCA used google maps in a desk-top study to identify which areas of a small town were residential but with no or limited off-street parking. This defines where the potential clients may live. Following this, potential hosts were identified by looking for areas within 5 minutes walk of the on-street residential areas where off-street parking was prevalent – this describes where potential suitable hosts may live. Finally, any small car parks within or near to the on-street parking residential areas were identified as potential community hub locations (for example, community buildings or medical centres.
The desk-top findings were verified by a site visit and consultation with people with detailed local knowledge.
Research into attitudes towards shared EV charging suggest:
- Hosts were more likely to be motivated to share their chargers in order to help their neighbours, community and the environment, rather than to make money
- Barriers to hosting included: concern about the inconvenience of having to vacate driveway space for a hirer, dealing with difficult customers, the ease of the transaction, and smart chargers being less easy to use for guests.
Businesses appear to be more reluctant to agree to become community charging hubs. The reasons are unclear, but are likely to include:
- Cost of charger installation, although currently some grants are available
- Difficulties siting chargers, and stipulations of landlords or insurance companies
- The need to fit in with company-wide policies and initiatives
- The time required to arrange and manage the facility, which struggles to get priority amongst more business-related issues
- Security around out-of-hours access
It is also useful to be able to locate and engage with local garages supplying EVs.
Lessons
The key lesson for this form of shared transport is the effect of the length of the car-buying cycle. This means that buyers only become receptive to messages about shared EV charging at the time they are considering purchase of a new vehicle, and if this opportunity is missed, it can be a long time before it arises again. Similarly, hosts can get frustrated at the perceived lack of demand for charging.
In order to address this factor, the following approach is likely to work best:
- Repeat promotional messages frequently enough over a long time period
- Reassure hosts that demand may be slow to establish, and provide a loyalty incentive if possible
- Involve car dealers so that appropriate promotion and information can be given to prospective buyers at the point of sale
Remember that only a small proportion of EV charger owners will be needed to meet market demands, so do not worry that the system won’t suit all potential hosts; it is more important to identify the ones for whom it will be an option.
Another useful partnership to have would be with local EV charger installers, to whom enquiries and requests for quotes can be referred. They may also be able to help establish suitable funding streams.
Promotion
Techniques used to promote shared EV charging include:
- Briefing car sales staff, and including posters and publicity in dealers
- Social media posts in local community and environmental forums
- Posters in local venues, shops, libraries, filling stations, waiting rooms, etc
- Leaflet drops through letterboxes and organic box distributors
- Drop-in sessions where potential participants can find out more about it
- Local press articles
- Having a presence at local related events such as energy fairs, repair cafes and libraries of things
- Encouraging and promoting local case studies and examples
