A new deal that will revolutionise smart charging of electric vehicles has been signed between smart charging software firm Electric Miles and charge point specialist Project EV.

The deal will provide drivers with services including automated charging at the cheapest time, saving money and protecting the grid

The three-year contract will provide around 100,000 residential smart chargers across the UK, saving drivers money and supporting the Government’s work for every charge point to be smart.

The project will see the chargers deployed by Project EV exclusively controlled on the Electric Miles Smart Charging platform. This will bring drivers with access to a suite of services including automated charging at the cheapest time, saving money – the firms say that with smart charging motorists can save 40% on their charging bills. It will also protect the grid from excessive demand at peak periods.

Through the Electric Miles app, drivers will have full control over the charging of their car to ensure it has the right amount of charge needed, at the lowest possible cost.

Simon Peat, CEO of Project EV, said: “We believe this deal will revolutionise the way vehicles are charged from dumb to smart. Using one of our advanced chargers integrated with Software from Electric Miles will allow drivers to charge their vehicle with the right amount of power at the cheapest cost. This is future-proofed cheaper driving.”

Arun Anand, CEO and founder of Electric Miles, added: “Most domestic car charging is still done after returning from work between 5pm and 7pm, the same time as demand for electricity goes up as everyone starts cooking their dinner. Project EV has already deployed 20,000 chargers in the residential market. Hence, we’re very excited to deliver our services to Project EV. From the start, we were impressed with their shared desire to put the interests of drivers first. Our smart charging platform puts motorists in total control of how and when they charge while also helping the grid to deliver power efficiently.”

Electric Miles is working to balance EV charging by integrating its intelligent smart charging platform with demand-side flexibility services. Through signed deals with three major Distribution System Operators (DSO) it will offer about 23MWs of demand side response (DSR). And the benefits from providing this service will be shared in the future with the drivers who have allowed their car batteries to be used in this way.

The business is also looking to strike other deals with charge point providers.

Anand added: “From the start we developed our software as a service platform to be hardware-agnostic. It can work with any Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) charger in the market. This is an important consideration for any charger manufacturer that doesn’t have this capability with the Government’s Smart Charging Regulation due to come into effect next year.”