The Department for Transport (DfT) is aiming to broaden the provision of open data on electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints around the country.
It is running a discovery project to understand what consumers and the industry would need and identify whether existing approaches in the transport, energy and other utilities sectors could meet the needs.
The department has carried out some user research and now published a market notice for support on a project to run to an alpha stage.
It has outlined user needs that point to providing the scope for app developers and other data aggregators to develop services on the lines of those for bus services in some cities, and which are being encouraged by its Bus Open Data Service.
Other user groups are: EV drivers who could use data on the availability and location of chargepoints; utilities providers, which need the data to balance the energy system; transport organisations for developing solutions such as mobility-as-a-service; and the chargepoint operators that hold the data.
“If we don’t complete a discovery, we risk being locked into an expensive technical solution that is not future proofed or aligned with industry data initiatives,” the notice says.
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