This response from the FEVER project team advocates for government support of grid-independent EV charging solutions to accelerate infrastructure rollout and address geographical and socio economic disparities in charging access. The team recommends that the government formally include off grid charging options in policy and funding. While welcoming the Department for Transport's recent £10 million innovation competition for off-grid ultra-rapid chargers on motorways, the authors recommend extending this approach to local settings such as car parks, where lower-power chargers (22kW or less) can serve vehicles with longer dwell times. Grid independent solutions offer key benefits: they bypass lengthy grid connection queues and costs, can be deployed more rapidly, support community energy schemes, and help address charging availability concerns that discourage EV adoption. The FEVER team calls for better integration between NESO's Connections Reform and EV charging infrastructure planning to ensure a balanced approach that includes both grid-connected and grid-independent charging solutions.
Professor Andrew Cruden, Principle Investigator of the FEVER programme grant and Associate Dean Infrastructure at the University of Southampton
Professor Suleiman Sharkh, Professor of Electrical Machiens and Drives (University of Southampton)
Professor Sebastian Stein, Professor within the Agents, Interaction and Complexity research group (University of Southampton)
Professor Richard Wills, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Storage and Head of Department for Mechanical Engineering (University of Southampton)
Dr Ewan Fraser, FEVER Senior Research Fellow (University of Southampton)
Dr Yazan Al-Wreikat (University of Southampton)
Dr Amirhossein Khazali (University of Southampton)
Dr Ezhilarasi Periyathambi, Research Fellow (University of Southampton)
Dr Bruno Arcanjo, Research Fellow (University of Southampton)
Dr Matthew Smith, Technical Lead of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (University of Sheffield)
Dr Mobin Naderi, Research Associate (University of Sheffield)
Dr Maria Nunez Munoz, Research Associate (FEVER) (University of Sheffield)
Dr Andrew Hutchinson, Research Associate (University of Sheffield)
Dr George Hind (University of Sheffield)
Dr Tarokh Bahrdo (University of Surrey)
Fariba Dehghan (University of Southampton)
Taalia Nadeem, Senior Research Associate (University of Portsmouth)
Professor David Stone, Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (University of Sheffield)
Professor Daniel Gladwin, Professor of Electrical and Control Systems (University of Sheffield)
Dr Erica Ballantyne, Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management (University of Sheffield)
Professor Martin Foster, Professor of Energy Storage & Conversion (University of Sheffield)
Professor Chris Jones, Professor of Environmental Psychology (University of Portsmouth)
Dr Mona Chitnis, Associate Professor in Energy Economics (University of Surrey)
