Resources

This replication booklet, produced by our EU-funded User-Chi project, gathers together the lessons that the cities involved learned over three years of testing solutions related to electric car and bike charging. You can read the full booklet here, or check out the summary below.

The booklet provides an overview of challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned. Key strategies include thorough planning, adopting advanced protocols, developing sustainable use cases, and leveraging private infrastructure for public benefits. These insights and tips for replication can guide other cities in implementing effective and scalable electric vehicle charging networks.

Lessons learned

During their voyage of experimentation with electric charging, the participating highlighted the following essential points:

• Planning and coordination: Thorough planning and coordination around electric charging are essential to avoid delays in grid connection and permitting procedures.
• Adopting protocols: Charging service providers should adopt the Open Charge Point Protocol for future-proofing and to support advanced features like energy balancing and monetary transactions.
• Sustainable use cases: Developing sustainable use cases for shared ‘light electric vehicles’ (bicycles, scooters etc.) is crucial in order to prevent conflicts and ensure effective operation.
• User engagement: Targeted communication and incentives are critical to engaging users and promoting new charging solutions. This includes using social media, in-person activities, and local press for effective communication campaigns.
• Business models: Leveraging private infrastructure for public charging networks can optimise resource use and support scalable expansion. This includes revenue-sharing agreements between property owners and charging point operators.

Tips for replication

For other cities looking to follow in the footsteps of User-Chi’s flagship cities, the following points were considered particularly crucial:

• Modern fleet support: Ensure that your fleet or vehicles support modern communication standards like ‘Combined Charging Systems‘ for wireless retrofitting.
• Secure parking solutions: Focus on providing secure parking and charging solutions, especially for light electric vehicles like electric bikes in public spaces.
• User-friendly guides: Develop handbooks and user-friendly guides to boost the use of decision support systems and tools.
• Combining services: Combine existing service apps with new innovative apps to offer user incentives and gather feedback.
• Future scalability: Include options for future scalability in tenders for charging points to allow for network expansion as needs and budgets permit.
• Learning from others: Study successful models from other cities and incorporate best practices into your planning and implementation.

City specific insights

• Berlin demonstrated effective use of private infrastructure for public charging, benefiting property owners, charging point operators, and electric vehicle drivers through increased revenue, easier installation, and more charging options.
• Budapest highlighted the importance of decision-support tools like CLICK for planning charging infrastructure and the need for building capacity to keep up with the evolving e-mobility landscape.
• Rome emphasised strategic placement of charging infrastructure based on population density and grid connectivity, with improved light electric vehicle parking management benefiting commuters.
• Turku focused on accessible and secure charging solutions, using integrated platforms for efficient management and developing a comprehensive master plan for charging infrastructure.

Read the whole document here, and discover more about the User-Chi project here.