A first UK trial of smart charging has shown that EV drivers could save over £600 a year with the technology.

Smart charging allows vehicles to charge at times when electricity rates are at their lowest. This helps save money and the trial showed smart charging could lower peak grid demand by 240MW.

Smart charging has been available to EV owners charging for at home charging, but this is the first project making it available to public chargers. The trial included 100 on-street smart EV chargers across 14 sites in four local UK authorities, Shropshire, Hackney, Glasgow and East Lothian.

Over the 6 month trial 2,451 individual charging sessions occurred which amounted to 51,618kWh of energy. The savings amounted to £604,65 per year compared to non-smart public charging and using projections for EV ownership in 2030 could equal annual savings of £4.1 billion a year.

Drivers in the trial had the option of either ‘Eco’ mode to use the smart charging technology at 19p/kWh or ‘Boost’ mode which acted like a non-smart EV charger at a cost of 33p/kWh.

Chris Pareman-Jones CEO of Conneted Curb, the smart EV charging company used in the trial said, “The energy price crisis is a major challenge facing all industries. For the EV transition, we know that this will narrow the gap between the cost of refuelling a petrol or diesel vehicle, and the typically much lower cost of charging an EV. That’s why now is the time to focus our attention on smart charging technologies that can allow those reliant on public charging infrastructure to benefit from cheaper prices when demand for electricity is at its lowest.”