EV Charging Behaviour Study

006149 - EV Charging Behaviour Study 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The North East Combined Authority (NECA) brings together the local authorities of Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Sunderland and South Tyneside.

NECA have been successful in receiving funding from the Office for Low Emission and through the European Regional Development Fund to deliver a project to increase the uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) within the NECA area. As part of this project we wish to procure a consultant who will be undertake study into the changes in charging behaviour of Electric Vehicles within the NECA area.

This will enable us look at the before and after data to assess the impact of the new rapid charging facilities. This will include analysing both quantitative and qualitative data.

This research will enable us to have the evidence base for developing a business model to cover the whole network and importantly to support the expansion of charging across the NELEP area. 2 BACKGROUND NECA has been successful in obtaining development funding from the Go Ultra Low City Scheme and through the European Development Fund in order to deliver a new wave of Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure across the region. This includes two Go Ultra Low Filling Stations and smaller rapid hubs to add to the existing public charging infrastructure network.

These will provide an innovative solution for urban/sub-urban densely populated areas where vehicle induced air pollution and noise are a problem and off-street parking is scarce. Rapid chargers are envisaged to be used by drivers making short trips as well as longer journeys.

One of the GULFS will in Sunderland and the other will be located on the Science Central site in Newcastle city centre 67,000 plug in cars and 4,000 plug in vans are currently registered on UK roads and numbers are increasing fast. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for 2015, showed the market for electric, plug-in hybrid and range-extended electric vehicles in the UK went up by 94% from 14,532 at the end of 2014 to 28,188 by the end of last year.

The government is committed to all cars and vans being zero emission by 2050 and the DfT had more requests for plugged-in car grants in Jan-Feb this year than in the past 5 years combined. The charging network in the North East is one of the densest in the country.

It was mainly installed as part of the Plugged in Places programme and network management is done through Charge Your Car. All NECA local authorities are committed to supporting EV use and to expand the network based on evidence and forecasts.