Sharing Knowledge about Sharing EVs: A Policy to Pursue

An electric car club trial was set up at a number of the public car-park-based charging hubs across Oxfordshire that were installed as part of the Park and Charge project. Following ongoing discussions between the Park and Charge partners, the policy partner at Oxfordshire County Council negotiated with car club operators to trial electric car clubs in over half the Park and Charge hubs, plus Redbridge Park and Ride in coordination with Oxford City Council. Dr Hannah Budnitz won funding from the OPEN Seed Fund to support the launch, map public interest and identify data sources for monitoring that were included in MOUs, including car club utilisation, charge point utilisation by the car club vehicles, and membership.  

Dr Hannah Budnitz used the collected monitoring data, as well as data from the main car club operator on their car clubs nationally, which has been shared to allow benchmarking to evaluate the trial as it reached its conclusion in April 2024. A knowledge exchange event was held in May 2024 at the University with all partners, operators, community groups from around Oxfordshire and other interested parties. All those involved in EV sharing across Oxfordshire and those who expressed interest were able to learn together and consider the lessons from related projects, as well as the trial after a year of operation.  

The partnership between Oxfordshire County Council, local car club operators and Dr Budnitz continues, as 15 shared vehicles will remain in 10 towns and villages across the county. Although some vehicles have moved between locations over time, the Oxfordshire electric car club pilot demonstrated the demand for sharing EVs in market towns and villages. The pilot also offered an opportunity for the Dr Budnitz to work with local policymakers to address the challenge of sustainable transport provision in rural areas – an experience that has brought benefits to all involved.