Electric vehicle charging for public spaces: feasibility studies

Overview

Innovate UK and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) will invest up to £20 million across a 2-phase competition for innovative projects to develop business cases and deploy new approaches to electric vehicle (EV) charging.

This is phase 1 of the competition – Feasibility Studies. Phase 2 is for demonstrators and will only be available for successful applicants at phase 1.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to deliver creative new designs and technology for low-cost, scale-able charging solutions for electric vehicle owners and users without off street parking.

Solutions must be convenient, designed appropriately for the proposed location. They can range from on street infrastructure to local charging hubs.

Projects must be:

• inclusive to all users in the location
• sensitive to issues around accessibility
• avoid monopolising existing parking infrastructure
• give consideration to whether the location is appropriate, especially conservation areas, flood plains and other special factors

Exclusions

They will not fund projects that cover:

• development of hardware on-board vehicles as a primary focus
• whilst technological design and application will be funded, we are not looking for fundamental technology development
• solutions targeting home charge point sharing
• replication of solutions already trialled and tested
• solutions that take away from pedestrian spaces, or cause problems for members of the public with accessibility issues

Eligibility

To apply for funding you must:

• be a UK based business, academic organisation, charity, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO)
• work in collaboration with other businesses, research organisations or third-sector organisations
• carry out your project work in the UK, unless a strong case is made to do otherwise

Projects must:

• be collaborative and business-led
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start by December 2018, end by March 2019 and last up to 3 months
• demonstrate commercially feasible business models and solutions

Funding Costs

Total costs for your phase 1 feasibility study should be between £75,000 and £120,000.

A total of up to £20 million is being invested to fund innovation projects in this 2-phase competition.

£750,000 has been allocated to the phase 1 stage and £19.25 million allocated for phase 2.

The funders reserve the right to move funds between the phases. This depends on the quality of applications received and the balance of projects across the 2 phases.

In this phase, for feasibility studies, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small business
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized business
• up to 50% if you are a large business

Research and technology organisations can receive 100% of their eligible project costs. Universities can receive 80% of full economic cost. In any project, a maximum of 30% of total eligible project costs can be spent by the research organisations involved.