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Polar, the UK’s first privately-funded nationwide charging network for electric powered vehicles (EVs), was launched amid a bevy of the latest electric vehicles in London this week. The north to south spread of  POLAR, developed by Luton-based Chargemaster plc with the support of a host of big name companies and the endorsement of the Department of Transport (DoT), will see 4,000 public charging points spread across the UK by the end of 2012.

POLAR charging points are already installed in Brighton and several other South Coast cities. The planned rollout aims to install 40 charging points in every UK city and town with a population of 100,000 or more by the end of 2012. Upon completion of the rollout, the UK will have the largest charging infrastructure of any country in the world. Locations with 40 charging points will be classified EV Ready, attracting the key electric car manufacturers to the area.

Guests at the launch event in London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, were treated to hands-on inspections of some of the latest EVs on the market, including a Renault Fluance, Nissan Leaf, Vauxhall Ampera, Mini ED and an awesome Tesla, all of which will be able to power up at the POLAR charging points.
 

Where to Find Them

Charging points will be located in commercial car parks operated by NCP and Britannia as well as car parks for supermarkets, airports and train stations and the workplaces of large employers. The scheme works on a subscription basis which can also include low-cost installation of high-speed home charging units. EV dealers will offer membership in the £19.50 to £39.50 per month scheme to auto buyers when they purchase their cars. Chargemaster, who have already worked on municipal charging schemes in Cambridge, London, Milton Keynes and Oxford, have developed POLAR to be interoperable with other subscriber schemes including the government’s own Plugged in Places pilot.

Speaking at the launch in London, Philip Hammond, MP, Secretary of State for Transport said, “I’m convinced we will see a shift from high to low carbon vehicles in the next 30 years as significant as the shift from the horse and carriage to the internal combustion engine.” He added, the government believes “the time is right to invest private money” in the charging infrastructure and praised Chargemaster as “very brave and bold to go out very early in the development of the market.”
 

Partners and Participants

To help the rapid spread of the private network, Chargemaster has partnered with major EV manufacturers including Ford, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault Citroen; power suppliers British Gas, EDP and SSE; supermarkets, including Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury, and Little Chef roadside restaurants across the country. A partnership with Telefonica UK, operators of O2, will focus on machine to machine communication between cars and the charging network.  One aim of this partnership is to speed the recognition of the charging points by drivers’ SATNAV systems. In addition, efforts to future proof the network are underway with wireless charging developer HaloIPT. Induction Power Transfer (IPT) could eventually see invisible charging points buried in ordinary parking spaces and only activating when occupied by a subscriber’s car.