As the average price of an electric vehicle falls and more EVs appear on the road, new energy demands present themselves. While the EV movement is reducing CO2 and emission levels, and benefiting the environment, a challenge arises in how all of these new vehicles can be collectively charged.

Presently, when you plug in your EV at home, it starts charging immediately, even if charging is not needed at that very moment. Similar to rush hour traffic, this means most drivers would likely be charging their EVs at around the same time, and the national grid will struggle to support this as demand increases. This makes the need for a smart charging infrastructure ever more urgent.

With online connection and cloud-based management software it's possible to match features to vehicles, constantly keep charge points up-to-date with over-the-air updates and configure charge points to react to a multitude of signals. Also, a smart charge point is more reliable. The technical support team can access charge points remotely the minute there is an issue - removing the need for an engineer visit in over 90% of cases.

"Smart charging is the way forward for EVs," Alan McCleave, UK general manager of NewMotion tells us. "In a nutshell, smart charging technology can

help distribute and balance available grid power, by only transmitting power to EVs when they really need it.

"Smart charging is an intelligent way of controlling and evening out the usage so there isn't a big rush that causes the grid to fall over," he says.

NewMotion has been pioneering smart charging solutions for ten years, providing more than 60,000 smart charge points to the European market since 2009. All NewMotion charge points are cloud- connected.

With standard pricing from £399 after the £500 OLEV grant, customers can get a NewMotion smart charge point fully installed at home. This provides

smart features for viewing charging data, over-the-air updates, and even managing how the charge point works with other electrical demands in the home. "With NewMotion charge points our customers are able to make use of Dynamic Power Management - ensuring the available energy capacity from the home connection is distributed in the best way possible with no danger of power outages due to electric car charging habits."

The company aims to provide a one- stop-shop to its customers to help them and their employees, which in turn results in benefits for users further down the chain. "For a business user, there is the Business Hub, where access to that smart charge point can be configured. It provides a great deal of information from that charge point about mobility and charging sessions."

McCleave explains that the company can also help organisations pass on extra savings to their customers and earn back significant costs per annum. Another benefit to business customers is NewMotion's EV Charging App for charging on the go, which will enable them to gain access to the largest roaming charging network in Europe, including almost 200 charge networks and 125,000 charge points across 35 countries.

And when it comes to external factors to consider - the UK government recently announced the newest BIK taxation rates for company cars will be 0% from 2020/21, which is set to offer a huge financial incentive for drivers to go electric. McCleave explains, "There's never been a more critical time to help customers make the transition to electric, and we're making sure we do it in a way that ensures the decision to invest in EVs is as smart as possible."