A GOVERNMENT grant of £650,939 will go towards a ground-breaking electric vehicle project to enable drivers to pre-book on-street charging bays for the first time.

EB Charging has been awarded two government grants as part of the £20 million green recovery fund.

The first grant of £273,305 will be used to develop Shift! - technology that will enable electric vehicle (EV) drivers to pre-book on-street charging bays.

In partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council and Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK), the technology will be developed specifically to help disabled EV drivers to find and pre-book accessible charging points.

Amy Heley, chairwoman of the council's environment, transport and sustainability committee, said a shift towards sustainable transport in and around the city will help towards the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

“Electric vehicles will be an important piece in this fight against climate change,” she said.

“We’ve been working with EB Charging for some time now and they’re helping to deliver an ever-growing electric vehicle infrastructure to our city and I’m excited for the projects ahead.

“I’m so pleased to see that the technology will be able to support traders and disabled people to access charging points.”

The software will be developed over the next eight months and will be widely available in 2022.

DMUK CEO Graham Footer said accessible EV infrastructure is essential to successfully transition disabled motorists across to EVs.

“Making EV infrastructure accessible for everyone to use is not just a nice thing to do, it is an absolute necessity,” he said.

Working like a season ticket provided by the business owners, the new Shift! service will allow fleet drivers to pre-book and block-book their nearest on-street EV charging bay.

The chargers will then be available to any other EV driver to use at any other time.

EB Charging’s projects are two of 62 electric vehicle technology innovations that won bids through the government’s research and development competition.

The second project is EVCP Siting - a cloud-based siting engine for designers of EV infrastructure networks.

The tool will help identify the best locations for new charge points to be installed in an attempt to help reduce the risk of social exclusion and under-utilisation.

With a grant of £377,634, Advanced Infrastructure is developing the tool using data sets in one location to help EV infrastructure identify socio-demographic data for urban areas across the UK.

EB Charing CEO Alex Calnan said the company wants EV infrastructure to be accessible and available to everyone.

He said: “With the help of this grant and our partners, we can make this a reality.”