Geospatial analytics: The key to unlocking the UK’s electric vehicle revolution

The United Kingdom (UK) is striving to bring about an electric vehicle (EV) revolution. EV adoption and rollout for UK citizens is an important part of the UK achieving long term sustainability goals.

However, the UK is currently falling behind the required charging infrastructure to support this revolution. According to the UK Infrastructure Bank, in 2023 an average of 1,600 charge points were installed per month – under half the required 3,250 to meet forecasted demand. The UK government also has an estimated shortfall of funding of £1.5 billion to build the necessary charging infrastructure to meet its goal of having 100% of all new vehicles being zero emissions by 2035.

Our geospatial analytics community at Capgemini Invent believe that geospatial data should be an important component in supporting the EV revolution, and policymakers should be fully utilising its potential.

In this article, they will review how the UK’s 2030 Geospatial Strategy supports the EV revolution, the key challenges the EV revolution faces in the UK, and finally how geospatial techniques offer solutions to support the transition to EVs.

Can the 2030 Geospatial strategy support the electric vehicle revolution in the UK?

The UK’s 2030 Geospatial Strategy, released by the UK Geospatial Commission, outlines a strategic framework for the utilisation of geospatial analytics and techniques by the public sector to support economic growth, while also fostering environmental stewardship and enhancing social well-being.

The strategy offers missions and opportunity areas for increasing the use of geospatial techniques to support a wide array of sectors. In relation to the electric vehicle revolution, it outlines a comprehensive framework and offers insights on how the public sector can further support electric vehicle adoption and infrastructure by utilising geospatial data and analytics.

The Challenges

Infrastructure building

The UK government estimates that 300,000 charge points will be needed to support a full EV rollout by 2030. The announcement by the UK government of a delay for this target gives more time, but UK is still short of EV charge points. As of March 2024, there are 59,590 EV charging points located across 32,322 charging locations. Building this infrastructure and the selected locations of charge points present a significant challenge – so what is preventing expansion of the network?

One of the main blockers is a lack of funding and financial incentives for the expansion. Although the UK government has committed £1.6 billion towards the UK’s charging infrastructure such as the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund and the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF), additional funding is still required as stated previously. Without sufficient investment and incentives for charge point infrastructure, EV rollout may be delayed and pushed further back.

Charge anxiety

Charge anxiety is a growing phenomenon challenging the adoption and rollout of electric vehicles. This can be defined as the fear that charge points are unreliable, too costly, and too sporadic to use effectively. This anxiety is interconnected with the need to expand the charge point network in the UK. Public confidence in electric vehicles is increasing, with over half of motorists between 16-49 stating they would switch to an electric vehicle within the next ten years. However, a general anxiety exists that the charge infrastructure is insufficient, and charge points themselves fail to meet consumer needs.

Equity and access:

Ensuring equitable access to the charge point system remains a critical challenge for UK citizens. Various segments of society encounter difficulties when trying to utilise the charge point network. One significant factor is the urban-rural divide. A County Councils Network report revealed that rural drivers have access to only one charge point per every 16 kilometres whereas London drivers enjoy a more favourable ratio of one charge point for every 1.2km.

Figure 1 below shows the rural/urban classification of local authority districts, and Figure 2 shows the number of EV chargers per km² for the same boundary areas. Comparing these maps visually shows that local authorities with a higher proportion of urban areas tend to have a higher density of EV chargers compared to those that are more rural. The boxplot in Figure 3 shows this to be true. The average density of EV charge points increases in local authorities categorised as more urban.

The second major factor is those living with no at-home access to charge points. This can be for varying reasons including living in a flat or not having access to off-street parking. The challenge remains that if citizens cannot access charge points at home, they will be forced to use public charge points as alternatives. This can result in higher costs relative to at-home chargers and poses a challenge in providing access to charging points for economically-disadvantaged individuals within society.

Solutions

Demand prediction and population movement

Geospatial analytics can provide detailed insights on origin-destination (O-D) movements, how travel patterns are changing, and where they differ from region to region. Traditionally this O-D flow data has been captured through census data. This has limitations based on sample sizes, frequency of updates and type of journey. Anonymised mobile phone data is rapidly becoming a more promising source. It has the advantage of modelling estimates for smaller areas and can generate more frequent and timely outputs, meaning it can respond to changing travel trends faster.

Geospatial analytics has a critical role to play in unlocking the travel flow insights. Utilising this data correctly can inform the prioritisation of where EV charge points are located and how future funding could be allocated. This aligns with the aims of the 2030 Geospatial Strategy which outlines the power of population movement data and how aggregated and anonymised data from mobile phone and apps can be utilised by the public sector.

Business fleets

Business fleets will play a critical part of the EV transition, however there are significant operational, financial, and logistical challenges that need to be considered to ensure feasibility. Combining advanced routing algorithms with geospatial analytics can help businesses scenario model fleet performance under a range of different conditions. This can help answer key strategic questions through data-driven analysis: What fleet mix will best suit business needs? Will depots have sufficient capacity to suit charging requirements? How adaptable is the fleet to meet future demands?

From an operational standpoint, geospatial analytics can be used to combine live data feeds from charge points, with vehicle routes, range, capacity, delivery requirements and driver schedules, to optimise routes – by minimising driver downtime and maximising efficiency.

Data and pricing

To combat the problems of equity and access, the effective use of data and standardised pricing are important to ensure all can benefit from both geospatial data and electric vehicles. Demographic, property, street, and traffic data can ensure all areas are adequately supplied with charging infrastructure.

Pricing is also an important aspect of ensuring equity between regions.  The UK government has tried to reduce charge anxiety through implementing regulations such as the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023. The regulations implement key changes including standardised pricing metrics to help improve consumers’ experience with charge points.

The future is geospatial and electric

Many challenges still exist for the transition to electric vehicles to succeed. The need to build the required infrastructure for electric vehicles and the charge anxiety that still exists amongst the British public will hinder any EV revolution. However, the 2030 Geospatial strategy seeks to alleviate some of these concerns through offering a strategic framework to enable the use of geospatial data and techniques by the public sector. Geospatial analytics is key in supporting the EV rollout and to enable consumers to make informed travel decisions in the future.