Research to tackle the challenges of electric vehicle home charging is now underway in Coventry.

The project will help enhance the city’s potential as “a low-carbon EV haven”

The project will focus on residents who lack driveway access and face difficulties in home charging, which accounts for almost half of Coventry households, according to figures.

The project, dubbed Levelling Up Coventry’s EV Adoption Journey, was one of seven winners of the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition and gets a share of £1.6m in grant funding from the Department for Transport.

Led by DoubleMSC Solutions and supported by Coventry University and Coventry City Council, the work will assess the effectiveness of the existing EV infrastructure in Coventry 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”.

Stewart Birrell, professor of human factors for future transport at Coventry University’s National Transport Design Centre, said: “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.”

The Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition, which is delivered by Innovate UK, aims to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low-carbon future.

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.”