Pop-Up EV Charging Points Could Be The Next Big Thing In Urban Mobility

There’s a new type of charging point being trialed in the UK, and it pops up from the ground. Urban Electric’s pop-up charging hubs can help EV owners without a driveway charge their cars at home despite having nowhere else to park but on the street.

In the UK, 43 percent of households (equivalent to 8 million cars and light goods vehicles) do not have access to a driveway, according to Urban Electric, which is why a kerbside charge point makes so much sense.

These chargers deliver a 7kW charging rate and are said to be suitable for 90 percent of residential streets. While 7kW might not sound like a lot, these units are designed to be used overnight, and since they’d be placed in residential areas, it means EV owners could use them as frequently as they like or need.

Read Also: Study Says Drivers Are Now More Open To EVs In Wake Of Viral Outbreak

The way the system is designed to work is that when the driver pulls up to the charge point, which is operated via a smartphone app, the station simply raises up out of the pavement, and only when it is “summoned” – this means that it is otherwise not an obstruction, leaving the street uncluttered.

“The learning from this trial will help Urban Electric to shape the future of the EV charging infrastructure industry, and I am thrilled that Oxford was able to be a part of through being the first city to trial this world’s first technology,” said Oxford City council member Tom Hayes.

Meanwhile, feedback from users indicated that reliability, access and availability were the most important factors when discussing the EV charging infrastructure, with respondents scoring these chargers a 4.3 out of 5 during the post-trial survey.

“We were delighted to learn that all residents – not just EV drivers – were ‘very happy’ with the installation of a charging hub on their street, validating the pop-up hub concept as a breakthrough in on-street charging for electric vehicles,” said Urban Electric co-founder, Olivier Freeling-Wilkinson.