Now you can charge your EV from the footpath

A solution for potential electric vehicle owners who can’t access off-street parking and charging is being trialled by an inner-city Melbourne council.

Called Kerb Charge, the patent-pending technology does exactly what its name suggests: provides the ability to recharge the battery of a plug-in electric vehicle from the kerbside.

The pop-up charger embedded under the footpath overcomes the issues a lack of access to off-street and garage parking presents for many would-be plug-in vehicle owners.

It means they won’t have to run an extension lead across the footpath from their home or have to rely on finding a public charging station to recharge their EV or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

The pop-up chargers are now being installed in the City of Port Phillip, which runs south of the Melbourne CBD and includes the suburbs of Albert Park, St Kilda, Port Melbourne and South Melbourne.

The same or similar ideas are being trialled by other companies in other countries.

For example, in the London boroughs of Camden and Brent 200 pop-up chargers are being installed by Scotland’s Trojan Energy.

In Sydney, ENE.HUB is installing smart lights on city streets with EV chargers incorporated.

While these street lights are publicly available, the Kerb Charge concept is to link its pop-up charger via underground cabling to a wallbox fitted to a specific house.

“Kerb Charge aims to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles by making on street charging more accessible,” the company says on its website.

“It was clear to us households without off-street parking were at a significant disadvantage. Our goal is to fix that problem.

“We are the first on-street personal, electric vehicle charging solution.”

Now all you need is to be able to park your EV outside your house!