Innovative Mobile Autonomous Charging Solutions (I-MACS)

From 2030, sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles must cease. Current state of the art in EV charging infrastructure will struggle to deliver the capacity needed for this to happen. The recent (February 2021) Policy Exchange whitepaper, 'Charging Up', stated that around 35,000 new public charge points will need to be installed each year to deliver the estimated 400,000 needed by 2030\. Using conventional technology, this will cost between £5-10bn.

Each conventional charger requires extensive groundworks, plus legal permissions to connect to a power network with sufficient capacity. The Intelligent Mobile Autonomous Charging Station (I-MACS) concept, by contrast, uses a mobile autonomous charging system (MACS) to deliver electricity to a busbar, with connections for 10 EVs to charge. The MACS can charge anywhere, anytime to take advantage of intermittent renewables.

The busbar needs only physically attaching to the ground, with no need for an electricity connection. We have set target costs for MACS and the busbar that will halve the cost of providing charging for up to 30 EVs. Furthermore, charging providers will be able to relocate chargers easily, should demand patterns change.

Drivers needing to charge their EVs will use an app to let the system know where they are and how long they wish to charge for. I-MACS will apply algorithms to determine where and for how long MACS's need to travel to charge the most vehicles as efficiently as possible.

In this project, RDM Group, the UK's leader in autonomous travel pods and shuttles will work with Milton Keynes council to develop a prototype system, for demonstration and scale-up post-project.