EV charging firm Mina has won investment to develop a solution to make EV home charging in flats and apartment blocks easier for owners and tenants.
The scheme in Sheffield will see the company partnering with Evergreen Smart Power to make charging simple for flat owners and residents.
The project has been partly funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) in partnership with Innovate UK as part of the £10 million Catalysing Green Innovation Programme. It hopes to make EVs accessible to the 9 million flat residents in the UK with the energy sector determined to drive forward on-street and non-driveway charging points.
Issues around flats includes the electricity cost – currently the building management taking the hit – and when 40% of residents are tenants, there is little incentive to install chargepoints. Equally, landlords are reluctant due to a lack of tenant demand.
Mina and Evergreen aim to create a business model that allows for apartment residents to pay a fixed monthly fee for a chargepoint at their parking space, including energy required, and provide access to cheaper charging than the public network.
The OLEV funding award will enable Mina and Evergreen Smart Power to progress this development, and carry out the modelling, evaluation, and prototyping necessary to persuade residents and facilities managers that there is a sustainable business case that meets each party’s needs and will work in the long-term pursuit to transition towards EVs.
Mr Abdul Chowdhury, Head of Innovation and Industrial Capability at OLEV said: “We are excited to be supporting this innovative project as part of our ambition to put the UK at the forefront of the design, manufacture and use of zero emission vehicles.”
Chris Dalrymple, co-founder of Mina said: “Apartment residents have previously found it difficult to switch to cleaner, greener Electric Vehicles and we can’t wait to deliver a solution that makes charging their car radically simple.”
