A new partnership between the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles and Icebreaker One will aim to close the data gaps required to roll out thousands more electric vehicle charge points across the UK.
Up to 14 million electric vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2030, driven by the phase-out of new petrol and diesel engines from 2030 – a key part of the UK’s net zero strategy.
To address that challenge, the Department for Transport, Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, and Icebreaker One will work together to identify the data infrastructure needed to roll out more charge points.
Access to robust, reliable data
This means the UK will need to roll out thousands more charge points to meet demand – but an installation effort of this scale requires access to robust, reliable data to understand consumer demand and electrical network capacity.
The partnership will bring together a coalition of industry stakeholders, regulators and decision-makers to support OZEV’s work to open public EV chargepoint data and improve consumer experience. Its ultimate goal will be to develop a data infrastructure for EV charge points that can unlock cost efficiencies, innovation, and help deliver a net-zero future.
Making it easy to search, access and securely share energy data
The partnership is part of Icebreaker One’s Open Energy programme, which is designed to make it easy to search, access and securely share energy data. Backed by Ofgem and the UK Government, it will bring together data held by thousands of individual organisations and institutions in an open marketplace.
Currently in its pilot stage, the Open Energy service is being developed based on use cases – like the need to access energy data to install EV charge points – that are designed to address real-world problems put forward by industry stakeholders.
Gavin Starks, CEO and Founder of Icebreaker One said:
“Electric vehicles are a vital part of the UK’s journey to net zero. Anyone who drives an EV knows that there aren’t yet enough charging stations – what’s less well-known is that rolling out charge points relies on connecting data across organisations.
“Open Energy enables trusted connections for organisations who need to search, access, and securely share data to install, access and use charge points. We’re delighted to be working with the Department for Transport and Office for Zero Emission Vehicles on a project that will help the UK transform our transport system.”