DfT-funded project to make EV infrastructure sharing a reality for fleets

The sharing of private depot electric vehicle (EV) charge points with commercial vehicle operators has taken a major step forward with the launch of a new project.

Paua PINS (Private Infrastructure Network Solution) has received around £300,000 from the Department for Transport (DfT) through its Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators programme, which is delivered by Innovate UK.

Paua, Cenex, Oxfordshire County Council, Suffolk County Council, Daf and a host of leading fleets, industry bodies and software providers are collaborating on the 10-month project to make depot sharing a reality on a commercial scale for fleets.

Cenex, Oxfordshire County Council, Suffolk County Council and Paua have agreed to demonstrate this solution to decarbonising business vehicles.

The two county councils will provide depot locations/vehicles to share with others, while Cenex will explore the technical and commercial challenges of this approach.

“We now see this sharing of depots as the next natural step to meeting the needs of fleet professionals,” Niall Riddell, Paua 

In January, the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) announced it was investigating the opportunities and challenges of fleets sharing charging infrastructure for electric vans. 

A survey, commissioned by the AFP last year, revealed that almost two-thirds (62%) of fleets would consider co-operative agreements with other fleets to allow mutual access to depot infrastructure and 58% their public facilities.

Mike Biddle, executive director of 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.”

Generating revenue from EV chargers

With the project’s findings to be published in a report once it is concluded, one of the key outcomes being targeted is the ability to generate increased revenue from the chargers that businesses have already installed.

Niall Riddell, CEO and co-founder of Paua, told Fleet News: “If you look at the way that people talk about charging, they’re quite often conflating the idea of a marginal cost to supply electricity and what I call a total cost of charging.”

He explains that alongside the cost of electricity, the charge point operator has to factor in maintenance, service, repairs, insurance and the actual hardware to determine the total cost.

“You quite often get people saying, ‘I can charge at home for 10p/kWh’ – the cost of electricity – ‘whereas on public chargers, it’s costing me 75-80p’ – the total cost of charging,” he said.

“What I think we’re seeing right now is businesses are building infrastructure for themselves, because it suits their personal needs.

“In theory, they’re amortizing the entire cost of that piece of infrastructure inside their own business case. Therefore, if they resell some of that charging to another party, they’re literally only selling the marginal cost rather than the total long-term cost.

“As a consequence, the opportunity to make an upside exists without either creating a price that’s as high as public charging or putting someone off because it’s too expensive.

“There’s opportunity to create a margin and it all comes down to how sensible they’re prepared to be.”

In principle, according to Riddell, fleets could charge users up to the cost of public charging, because they could argue it is as convenient, if not more convenient, than the public network.  

“But equally, they could say ‘I’m doing this for the greater good and therefore all you need to do is cover my marginal costs’. They could charge really low rates based on them trying to achieve a broader societal objective,” he said.

As well as allowing fleets to cash-in on existing infrastructure, the sharing of charging facilities could also help more fleets make the business case for installing new charge points.

Jeremy Woolley, Pau’s product manager, explained: “It’s as much about helping people electrify their own locations and the chargers that may have a marginal case right now.

“It might give that little bit of extra confidence to say, ‘because we know we’re going to be able to invite people in that helps to get the green light to invest’.

“I’m hopeful that we can improve the business case for people to accelerate their rollouts.”

Riddell added: “Paua seeks to innovate to enable businesses to simplify their transition to electric.

“Having led the aggregation of UK public charging, developed technology to reimburse home charging, we now see this sharing of depots as the next natural step to meeting the needs of fleet professionals.”

The Paua PINS project originates from experiences on the Greenfleet Rally 2023 where Paua and Cenex experienced depot sharing with multiple vehicles and locations.

First Bus Glasgow was one of the sites utilised and First Bus is a member of the advisory panel with the first charging session having already taken place at one of its sites.

The project has recruited a group of advisors to sit on the panel to support with both depot access and fleet requirements.

They include the AFP, Daf, the Police Seven Force Strategic Collaboration Programme – consisting of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent forces, East Lothian Council, Nottingham City Council, SSE Networks, the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA), National Grid, DPD, Royal Mail and depot software specialists EO Charging, Spirii, Hangar 19 and Fuuse.

Riddell said: “The aim of the advisory panel is to address those two basic questions of who wants to access depots and what’s your use case, what’s your requirements - what are you prepared to do, what are you not prepared to do?

“And, then who’s prepared to share a depot and who might you accept at your depot? What's good, what's bad? What are the opportunities? What are the barriers?”

Paua is asking fleets with an interest in this solution to either to share and monetise their own infrastructure or to access the infrastructure of others involved in the project to email Hello@pauatech.com.

Alongside the final report, a series of webinars are planned to share findings from the project.

Four ways to optimise workplace electric vehicle charging infrastructure, click here to find out more.