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Vahanomy partners with the University of Edinburgh Business School to develop project financing and costing models for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Vahanomy which took part in cohort 6 of the University of Edinburgh’s AI Accelerator has partnered with the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability to develop project financing and costing models for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This work has been facilitated and funded by the AI Accelerator programme based at the Bayes Centre. According to a 2022 Deloitte report, an estimated £18 billion in capital is required to support the rollout of EV charging infrastructure across the UK and to meet decarbonisation targets. It is essential to have a practical and well-researched model or tool that provides insight into the viability of capital-intensive infrastructure installation projects that will facilitate the wide adoption of EVs. The joint work will help to develop models to access project financing and cost estimations for different types and formats of public EV charging infrastructure.

The research and consultation with stakeholders in the EV ecosystem will further strengthen Vahanomy’s products to accelerate the rollout of the EV charging infrastructure. The partnership will develop models, using discounted cash flow methods to evaluate the financial performance of EV charging infrastructure projects. The models will not only provide cost estimations and predictions for different scenarios, such as greenfield and brownfield projects, but also have the capability of evaluating a variety of business arrangements, including public-private partnerships.

Several interviews with stakeholders are being carried out for data verification. In addition, we will explore data sources for the proposed model/tool and identify potential business models and financing options/sources required for a viable EV charging infrastructure project.

Theodor Cojoianu, Associate Professor in Sustainable Finance at The University of Edinburgh Business School and Director of Research at the Edinburgh Futures Institute stated that “The installation, maintenance or repair of charging stations for electric vehicles is a recognised green economic by many sustainable financial regulations and investors around the world. We are delighted to further our research into the economic and financial viability of different EV charging deployment models and help scale green technologies towards our net-zero to 2050 goals.”

Mengfei Jiang, Lecturer in Finance, Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability, The University of Edinburgh Business School, “The synergy between Vahanomy and the Business School is pivotal. As the push for decarbonisation intensifies globally, it’s vital to have robust, data-driven insights guiding the EV charging infrastructure rollout. By developing models that can evaluate the financial performance of EV charging infrastructure projects, we are providing potential investors with a clear roadmap”.

Arun Gopinath, CEO and Co-founder of Vahanomy “Our partnership with the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability will help our customers make better decisions to protect and grow their investments in EV charging infrastructure. The findings from this collaborative work will further strengthen the offering of our location data intelligence tool to have an improved understanding of the suitability, viability and risks of EV charging infrastructure projects.”

Vahanomy’s innovative AI data driven B2B products aim to decarbonise transport by accelerating electric vehicle charging infrastructure rollout globally. Their product set focuses on two major areas:

a) AI-powered location data intelligence tool to analyse the suitability, viability, opportunity, and risk to the capital invested, revenue model, electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), and end-users of proposed EV charging locations based on over 110 market-researched parameters. These financing and cost estimation models enable further robustness to the business and revenue models for these capital-intensive green infrastructure projects.

b) CHRGR.io – an innovative marketplace for the electric vehicle charging infrastructure ecosystem that allows site owners to list their properties and car parking spaces and get matched to charging point operators that enables speedy location identification or potential sites for EV charging infrastructure and price discovery.

We look forward to engaging with CPOs and EV charging infrastructure investors and other stakeholders in the EVCI ecosystem as part of our consultations. Please connect with me on Linkedin or email Arun Gopinath

The announcement by the University of Edinburgh Business School can be found here

#evcharginginfrastructure #EV #evcharging #greenfinancing

The UK Government has laid the draft of the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 in Parliament on 11 July 2023. These regulations set out the requirements for the future of public electric vehicle (EV) charging and extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The draft regulations will improve the experience of people who use the public charging network, and who make long journeys. Improving reliable and straightforward access to the public charging network for this group is crucial to encouraging the uptake of EVs.

The draft regulation requires:

a) Contactless Payments Contactless payment for all new public charge points with a power of 8kW and above and existing rapid public charge points with a power of 50kW and above within one year of the regulations coming into force.

b) Payment Roaming Payment roaming will be required through this instrument within two years of the draft regulations coming into force date, to enable drivers to use a single app or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card across multiple charge point networks. Charge point operators must ensure that they connect to at least one third-party roaming provider.

c) Reliability The draft regulations will also require 99% reliability for each charge point operator’s network of rapid charge points, measured as an annual average. A 24/7 free-to-use staffed telephone helpline must also be offered for all public charge points to support consumers struggling to charge.

d) Clarity in pricing The draft regulation requires charge point operators to use pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) as the standard pricing metric for all public charge points, to be displayed either on the charge point or through a separate device. This will enable consumers to compare prices and ensure they are getting value for money as a result and allows for the ongoing use of innovative bundling solutions such as for charging combined with parking and other services, so long as the charging component is displayed in p/kWh.

e) Open Data The draft regulation will open up EV charge point data by requiring that charge point operators make their data publicly available through the Open Charge Point Interface Protocol (OCPI) data requirement. This will open up reference data for example location data and availability data to the public. It will require that charge point operators open their reference data, such as location and payment method offered, and charge point availability data for the public and government bodies. This will enable consumers to access availability data to find out if a charge point is in use and working before they arrive.

We welcome the regulations as it makes considerable progress from the state of the EV charging market, as existing, in making the charging experience for the end user frictionless and improving consumer confidence in electric cars. The requirements for open data will be better for all parties in the EV charging ecosystem.

The draft of the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 can be found here.: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2023/9780348249873

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