New innovations that could tackle key obstacles in EV charging for drivers, fleets and local authorities have been awarded in a two-day ‘hackathon’ run by Ordnance Survey.

Experts and enthusiasts from start-ups, private enterprise and public sector create solutions in the OS hackathon to tackle obstacles such as where to locate public charging points in future

Participants, which included the Department for Transport and Ofgem, were given the task of overcoming problems such as where charge points should be developed, how to attract more non-EV owners, and how EV infrastructure can be levelled up in remote communities.

They were handed in-depth OS data and APIs to work with, as well as other relevant data sources including UK-wide datasets from EV routing planning and charger app WattsUp, and full support and expertise from OS’s team of GIS specialists to help with the challenge.

The hackathon final saw four concepts presented in front of a judging panel, who chose an EV Charging Site Planner app created by Arcadis as the winner.

Designed with local authorities and private developers in mind but also potentially applicable for fleets, it identifies suitable locations for installing EV charging points and shows the best locations, based on OS data and council land registry information. A demo of the app during the hackathon on the city of Leeds revealed 144 of the best potential charge point sites to be found on city council land, and a further 650 possible sites elsewhere that could be considered.

OS API product manager and hackathon judge Charley Glynn said: “We were so impressed with how much data Arcadis brought together. The creativity and innovation of the idea, not only in the application, but also how tangible the positive impact will be for society, and they deserve a huge congratulations.”

The innovations revealed at the final also included a new Department for Transport app that calculates how long a journey will take for EV owners with different needs. Dubbed Circuit Finder, it allows users to tailor their journey and charging according to their preferences. If someone wants to be in a comfortable place while they wait for their car to charge, they can select that, or if they want to get charged and away as quick as possible, that can be factored in too. Circuit Finder gives a map of the journey with charge points, bespoke stats related to car charging capacity, and timings for how long it will take to charge it.

Ofgem’s entry was a concept called Plonkers, aimed at levelling up rural communities to help them transition towards becoming EV-friendly. The prototype app focused on Thurso in Scotland and investigated where was best to ‘plonk’ charge points.

RAC Agilysis also unveiled its Rate My Charger concept; created to promote the best chargers in the country. The idea for the app was to look at what real EV journeys are like and understand what kind of qualities people expect to see from public charging points, including how safe people felt using them, the quality of a mobile phone signal, whether there were any public conveniences nearby, how scenic the location was, and other amenities nearby. The app could be developed longer-term to understand data about how long people stay at charging points based on its quality and location.

OS’s head of geovation Carly Morris said: “It is great to see the combined efforts of start-ups, private enterprise and the public sector, working together and to see what great things have come out of that.

“A particular highlight for a lot of the judges has been the creativity over the two days. It is an amazing breadth and variation we have seen. Of course, it has only been two days but there is potential for even more impact to come from these ideas and OS wants to work closely with them to help grow and develop these ideas through our Geovation community.”