Britain has a clever plan to expand its EV charging network

EV sales around the world are growing faster than expected , but one problem remains painfully obvious: There are simply not enough charge points to match demand. One barrier for this EV network rollout has had to do with grid capacity, and the resources it takes to upgrade local electricity distribution networks to power those charging stations. Now, the U.K. might have found an intriguing solution.



The British telco giant BT, and its startup and digital incubation arm Etc, have begun converting telecom cabinets in the U.K. into EV charge points. These cabinets, known locally as “street cabinets,” typically house broadband and phone cables, but most of them have excess power that, until now, was not being used. Instead of creating a new power connection, Etc is drawing out that excess power, and using it to power EV cars instead.



BT owns about 90,000 street cabinets throughout the U.K., and Etc has identified that 60,000 of those could be upgraded for EV use—a significant chunk considering the U.K.’s plan to install 300,000 charge points by 2030. The first charge point opened earlier this month, on a quiet street in the Scottish town of Haddington.



[Photo: BT]



For now, broadband use can continue to coexist with EV use, but as the country continues to roll out fiber-optic technology to replace broadband internet, more and more of these cabinets will end up being decommissioned, and the entirety of the power could potentially be used to support EV charging. “We are recycling, then upscaling the cabinets for the next digital use,” says Tom Guy, a product designer and CEO of Etc. “When these things went in, that use was absolutely required for our customers, and now it’s about, ‘What’s the next use?’”



Charging while you sleep



Car owners will plug their car into a brand-new EV charging station, but the electricity for that unit comes from a nearby street cabinet via underground cables that can travel as far as 260 feet between the two points. None of this is visible to the naked eye. All drivers have to do is locate the nearest charge point via an app, pull up, charge, then go about their day.



But it’s worth remembering that charging an EV is different from fueling up a diesel or petrol car. While charging times vary wildly based on battery size and charging methods, it can take between 30 minutes to several hours to charge an EV—a discrepancy this is already changing the look and feel of charging stations .



It also matters where these chargers are located. In a survey that BT conducted with 4,000 people in the U.K. and the U.S., nearly 80% of petrol and diesel drivers cited the inability to conveniently charge an EV as a key a barrier to purchasing one. In the U.K., in particular, about 30% of people don’t have driveways, meaning they can’t draw power from their own house; instead, they have to rely on public infrastructure. One of the benefits of this repurposed EV charging station is that they are located where people live. “Customers who are already in that EV world describe it more like charging your iPhone,” says Guy. “‘I want to be doing it near my home, whilst I’m asleep, and don’t want having to think about going somewhere.’”



From one charge point to 60,000



For now, Etc is prioritizing streets that don’t have their own driveways, but the expansion road map is a lot more complicated than that. The team is eyeing West Yorkshire next, where they are planning to retrofit three additional cabinets. After that, they will have approximately 59,996 more cabinets to choose from (based on the original 60,000 they identified). To help them with that decision, they are building a digital twin of the entire U.K.



This twin is essentially a very detailed computer model that will, among other things, help the team identify the number of street cabinets that can be retrofitted in an area. It will also help them analyze things like proximity to a school, which might mean restricted parking, and whether the pavement is accessible enough for someone with a wheelchair to pull up and access the charge point. “That data platform will become the source of information of everything we know that will allow us to prioritize whichever way we want by location, by council, by cabinet type,” says Guy.



Whether a similar pilot could work outside of the U.K. remains to be seen, but Guy thinks the digital twin is a crucial part of the process, and the easiest one to replicate. He suggests that other countries could build a similar platform to analyze their assets and understand if they can be used to grow their EV charging network. “We know North America very well, but we don’t know technically what those cabinets are used for, how much power is drawn from them; if you stole some power, could you do other things,” he says. “But if you’ve got power on the street, the piece that’s repeatable will be data platform that we create.”