With the government’s widely publicised plan to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK by the end of the decade comes a secondary issue – the need for an extensive electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to support an exponential increase in the number of EV cars on the road.

Rollout of EV chargepoints is significantly behind what is needed to meet the predicted demand from 2030. It is estimated that the number of chargepoints will need to increase tenfold by 2030 to cater for the anticipated numbers of EV drivers. There is also currently an uneven geographical distribution of EV charging points across the UK.

The government’s UK Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy is a step in the right direction regards addressing the extra demand for charging points in the UK, but there is no simple ‘one size fits all’ solution. In urban city centres where dwellings largely comprise flats with no off-street parking, there will be high demand for ultrafast chargepoints, whereas in rural areas, slower, but more economical, home chargepoints will prevail. There will also be peaks and troughs in demand at certain times of the day.

This all begs the question: should we be looking at what other countries are doing in the EV charging space and considering alternative solutions to compliment the planned EV charging infrastructure? And could Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) be one such solution?

What is BaaS?

The BaaS model enables EV owners to swap out depleted batteries for fully charged ones at a service station via a subscription service. These batteries can still be charged using normal chargepoints, with BaaS complimenting the EV infrastructure that has already been installed.

Although it is at an embryonic stage of development and not without its own challenges, early signs are that BaaS is working successfully in China with the principal market incumbent, Nio, now looking to roll it out in Europe as well.

There are several potential benefits of the BaaS model – based on global case studies of the technology in use.