L ast year Norway became the first
country in the world to see the
sale of electric cars overtake
those of petrol, diesel and hybrid
vehicles. Battery electric vehicles
(BEVs) sales made up over 54 per
cent of all new cars sold in 2020, up
from over 42 per cent in 2019.
Just ten years ago, according to
figures from the Norwegian Road
Federation, sales of EVs accounted
for just 1% of the overall market,
so 2020 has seen significant steps
made in phasing out of petrol and
diesel vehicles.
Sales of electric vehicles (EVs)
around the world are expected to
continue to grow rapidly in 2021,
according to industry analysts and
car distributors, as more models are
brought to the market.
In the UK the Government’s
‘Road to Zero’ strategy envisages
ending the sales of petrol, diesel
and hybrid vehicles by 2035 and
includes providing grants to make
electric vehicle ownership more
affordable. It is also looking to
off-set the costs associated with
installing charge-points in the home,
workplace and on-street.
This acceleration in sales of EVs
has raised some serious questions
as to whether the charging
infrastructure, that will be required,
will be in place and able to cope
with the level of demand a 100 per
cent EV market could be placing on
it by 2035.
With the continued technical
improvement of electric vehicles,
especially with respect to battery
capacity and charging time, it’s
critical that a network of charging
stations that are able to make
charging easily accessible are
available to consumers.
Data produced by the European
Alternative Fuels Observatory shows
that in the UK in 2019, the number
of EV charge points per 100km of
road was around 570 and that will
need to be increased significantly.
“The EV infrastructure market
THE ROAD TO ZERO
As the demand for EVs accelerates so the need for an effective
power charging infrastructure becomes critical. By Neil Tyler
are two distinct forms of chargers.
The first is a destination charger.
Effectively, as the government has
identified, most charging is likely
to take place in people’s homes
or at places of work. That market
is dominated by suppliers who are
in what can only be described as
a ‘race to the bottom’. The quality
of the chargers, compared to five
years ago, has dipped and that is
being driven by house builders and
installers looking to drive down
costs.
“As a design consultancy, we are
finding plenty of customers having
to make chargers as cheaply as
possible as chargers become a site
requirement in new house builds.”
The other form of charging is
associated with en-route chargers.
“They will need to be fast if
they are to be effective,” explained
Power. “There’s currently a dearth
of high speed DC chargers available
and we’re now seeing the likes of
is seriously lagging behind the
EV market,“ said Dunstan Power,
Director, ByteSnap Design. “While
we are seeing exponential growth in
vehicle sales, both here in Europe
and in China and the US, we will
need a significant acceleration in
the deployment of charging points.”
The UK government expects
that most charging will take place
at home, in what it describes as a
‘key attraction’ of EV ownership,
and it has committed £400m to the
public-private Charging Infrastructure
Investment Fund to accelerate
the roll out of charging points in
domestic settings. But building
out this infrastructure, including
chargers, grid gear, software and
communication networks, will be a
significant challenge.
“The electrification of
transportation is being held back
by the slow pace of electric vehicle
charging infrastructure deployment,”
argued Power. He continued, “There
10 26 January 2021 www.newelectronics.co.uk
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