Coventry University is working with local residents without driveway access to examine the barriers to domestic charging.
The work, called Levelling Up Coventry’s EV Adoption Journey, will focus on the almost half of Coventry households without off-street home charging.
The project was selected as one of seven winners of the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition, providing a share of £1.6million in grant funding from the Department for Transport.
Led by Doublemsc Solutions with support from Coventry University and Coventry City Council, it will assess the effectiveness of the existing EV infrastructure in the city to illustrate the benefits and practicality of transitioning to EVs.
Coventry University’s Centre for Future Transport and Cities will aim to develop a “disruptive model to enhance the city’s potential as a low-carbon EV haven”, it said.
The Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition is funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by Innovate UK and aims to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low-carbon future.
Stewart Birrell, Professor of Human Factors for Future Transport at Coventry University’s National Transport Design Centre, said:
“Here within the Research Centre for Future Transport Cities we are delighted to be working on this exciting project bringing flexible EV charging to the people of Coventry.
“Our research will bring our human centred design expertise to help design a usable and desirable mobile battery innovation -an EV charging solution named ENSTOREL, but also understand through modelling the existing charging network where gaps exist for changing needs in Coventry.”
Mike Biddle, Executive Director Net Zero at Innovate UK, said:
“By looking at decarbonisation through a place-based lens it is hoped that these projects will bring wider benefits above and beyond transport decarbonisation such as the improved health of residents through better access to active travel modes, a greater sense of community created by schemes or a decrease in congestion levels due to fewer private vehicles on the road.
“We’re looking forward to the project completion next year and seeing the impact.”
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