Surrey researchers are set to tackle the biggest problems facing electric vehicles

A coalition of researchers from Surrey and the Universities of Southampton and Sheffield are working to develop and demonstrate solutions that will help sustain the future use of EVs and maintain their popularity and sustainability. Surrey's involvement in the research will explore the end-user acceptance of new charging technologies and how the user's choice of technology will be affected. 

The researchers are looking at how to:  

• Achieve significant growth in the EV charging infrastructure to meet the growing demand 
• Facilitate the continued development of onshore renewable generation for use in EV charging stations, and 
• Ensure that the EV charging infrastructure isn't constrained by the National Grid. 

The five-year project, entitled the Future Electric Vehicle Energy Networks supporting Renewables (FEVER), starts work in September. 

Dr Mona Chitnis, co-investigator and Senior Lecturer in Energy Economics, said:  

"The good news is that the electric vehicle revolution is a significant opportunity for us all to drastically reduce CO2 emissions and start to address the harm we are doing to our planet.  

"However, to reap all the benefits presented by EVs, we need to make sure that the energy that powers them is coming from low-carbon or entirely renewable sources. This is the grand aspiration of this project, and indeed the University of Surrey, and I look forward to working with colleagues from academia and industry throughout the duration of this project." 

The FEVER team will look to design and develop an EV charging solution that can fully deliver grid-independence. To do this, the team will use renewable generation within an innovative off-vehicle energy storage (OVES) system to offer secure, year-round, grid-independent charging. Moving beyond the state-of-the-art technologies, a cost-effective and socially acceptable 'hybrid' OVES will also be developed, that is suitable for both urban and rural deployment and use. 

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The University of Surrey is a leading research institution that focuses on sustainability to the benefit of society in order to deal with the many challenges of climate change. It is also committed to improving its own resource efficiency on its own estate in Guildford and being a sector leader. It has set a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. In April, it was ranked 55th in the world by the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings which assesses more than 1,400 universities' performance against the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Note to editors 

• For more information, please email Dr Mona Chitnis: m.chitnis@surrey.ac.uk  
• To contact the University of Surrey's press office, please email: mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk