£2.2m award by Department of Transport to trial technology for charging electric commercial vehicles

Transport minister John Hayes has announced Zapinamo has been awarded £2.2m by the Department of Transport, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and InnovateUK under the Low Emissions Freight Trial to work with WMG and others to trial technology for ultra high speed rapid and movable charging technology for commercial vehicles.

Zapinamo’s technology uses on/off grid and renewable sources for EV charging and is capable of delivering over 400kW to charge a vehicle in minutes. This represents a step change in how we charge EVs as it is the first charging technology which can meet the demands of electric commercial vehicles with long and demanding duty cycles.

The freight and delivery trials will be carried out by Zapinamp, supported by IVECO, Farmdrop and WMG at the University of Warwick, with the trials taking place in Bermondsey, South London.

Hayes said: “It is fantastic that Zapinamo is willing to explore zero emission technologies, which will help improve air quality and reduce pollution in towns and cities. This is yet another important significant step towards this government’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions from transport to help tackle climate change. We are already making headway through our investment in low emission vehicles, greener public transport and walking and cycling, as well as grants for innovative advanced biofuels projects.”

Professor Richard McMahon, professor of power electronics at WMG at the University of Warwick said: “Zapinamo has won funding under the low emissions freight trail (LEFT) scheme to provide a rapid charging facility for Farmdrop’s fleet of electric vans based at their Bermondsey depot. WMG has a key role in the project, drawing on its experience of complex power electronics based systems in defining the power conversion technology for the local battery energy store which delivers the fast charging whilst being gradually recharged from the mains. WMG’s commitment to developing highly efficient power converters using new wide band-gap semiconductor devices will provide the basis for future advances in Zapinamo’s system.