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New lamppost-based electric vehicle charging on campus

Lampposts could be the answer to electric vehicle charging, thanks to help from researchers at WMG in bringing a new brand of charging points to market – some of which are powering electric vehicles on campus.

Our campus now has four char.gy points at Westwood – as well as numerous other electric vehicle charging points - and will purchase more in the near future. Find out more about EV charging on campus.


char.gy and WMG

Startup company char.gy created a new electric vehicle charging point product which can be easily installed onto existing lampposts, meaning there’s no need to add another power supply or dig up the road or pathway. However, it needed a bespoke electronic circuit board to meet to EU standards for public charge points.

The SME support team at WMG helped char.gy rapidly design, build and test a prototype of the new electronics board in order to achieve the certification deadlines.

Because of this, char.gy was able to complete the product on time, and send it for testing – eventually making the charge points ready for public use.

Warwick not only supported the development of char.gy, but has also purchased “char.gys” to charge electric vehicles on campus – including the University Estates Team’s new fleet of battery-powered vans.

Dr David Norman, Electronics Engineer from the SME Group at WMG, commented:

“I worked closely with the char.gy team to develop the final electronic circuits needed for completion of the product. I continued with remote support of the product certification and EMC testing which rounded of my help. It was a really interesting and exciting project to be work on and I am very proud of what has been achieved”

Richard Stobart, CEO of char.gy, commented:

“We want to make it possible for anyone to own an EV – particularly those without off-street parking. char.gy’s mission is to make EV charging as simple as possible for drivers."

“Thanks to WMG for a fantastic service. They understood what we needed and turned around a turnkey solution very quickly that cut our manufacturing costs and allowed us to get into the certification schedule early. I highly recommend them to startups struggling with difficult engineering challenges.”

Picture of electric vehicle using char.gy point

One of our new electric vehicles using a char.gy point

Picture of representatives of WMG and char.gy

Founder of char.gy Richard Stobart (left) and Technology Transfer Engineer for WMG David Normal (right)