How industry-university drive will help get electric vehicles on the road
9 March 2026
As the UK accelerates its shift to electric vehicles, research at the University of Strathclyde shows that coordinated action between industry, network operators and policymakers is essential to deliver smart charging, resilient grids and affordable infrastructure to support Net Zero.
It's almost the end of the road for the internal combustion engine: the UK Government is committed to phasing out sales of new cars and vans powered solely by petrol or diesel by 2035. But there is a problem.
"Under current policy and uptake assumptions, the UK won’t reach 100% electric vehicle (EV) until around 2045," says Dr Priya Bhagavathy of the University of Strathclyde’s Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC). Her prediction is based on a model she developed with Dr Hannah Budnitz at the University of Oxford.
“Something needs to shift to encourage more people to go electric because targets alone do not deliver transitions,” adds Dr Bhagavathy.
Confidence, not coercion, will drive EV uptake
Transport produced 26% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in 2021, with domestic transport responsible for 109 MtCO2e.
Even when sales of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are banned, there will still be many millions of petrol and diesel cars on the road, until at least 2050.
Decarbonising transport is crucial in achieving the UK’s Net Zero target of reducing GHG emissions by 100% by 2050. But making this change isn’t simply a case of encouraging – or forcing – consumers to go electric.
While the upfront cost of EVs is a barrier for many, range anxiety and doubts about the availability and affordability of charging infrastructure also prey on consumers' minds.
"The transition to EVs depends as much, if not more, on electricity grid infrastructure, charging reliability and supply chains as it does on vehicle price and performance," says Dr Bhagavathy.
The transition to EVs depends as much, if not more, on electricity grid infrastructure, charging reliability and supply chains as it does on vehicle price and performance.
When everyone plugs in at once
Ensuring Britain’s electricity grid can cope with mass EV charging without local power networks being overwhelmed is essential.
Working closely with electricity network operators, charging‑infrastructure providers and policymakers, Strathclyde researchers are helping translate academic insight into practical tools that support day‑to‑day network planning and long‑term infrastructure investment.
“EVs are increasingly being charged in the middle of the night, taking advantage of traditional off-peak tariffs. But as EV numbers increase, this off-peak charging will become its own peak, and push the grid beyond its operating limits, accelerating ageing and increasing the risk of faults,” says Dr Bhagavathy. “Options to address this include location constraint-based smart tariffs or flexibility service providers with geographic clusters.”
PNDC delivered end-to-end testing of a bi-directional charging solution designed to unlock multiple Vehicle-to-Everything applications. By emulating real-world operational scenarios, the team validated performance, improved system efficiency, and provided critical data to accelerate commercial readiness.
One Strathclyde-led study used Stockholm's power system as a case study to assess uncoordinated EV charging against two smart charging strategies: Loss-optimal and cost-optimal.
Results showed that uncoordinated EV charging significantly increased network losses and transformer congestion. In contrast, loss-optimal smart charging reduced annual network losses by more than a third, while the cost-optimal strategy delivered a smaller reduction in losses but a 4.3% decrease in electricity import costs, making it more economically attractive for distribution system operators. Both strategies can be further enhanced through the integration of solar power generation and battery energy storage systems.
Strathclyde researchers have also studied real-world behaviour at public EV chargers by analysing data on when vehicles arrive, how long they stay, and when they leave. The results showed that EV charger demand comes in distinct patterns, depending on user behaviour and location.
Professor Stuart Galloway, one of the study authors, says: "Some hubs experience sharp, short-lived peaks when many vehicles arrive close together, while others have longer, flatter demand because cars remain plugged in for extended periods.
"By categorising demand patterns, our research gives grid planners and charging operators a clearer picture of how people actually use charging hubs, which makes it easier to design charging infrastructure and manage the local electricity network without overloading it."
Our research gives grid planners and charging operators a clearer picture of how people actually use charging hubs, which makes it easier to design charging infrastructure and manage the local electricity network without overloading it.
For distribution system operators, these results support smart charging, not just as a technical optimisation, but as a way of deferring or avoiding costly network reinforcement while maintaining service quality.
It's not just the amount of electricity that network operators have to plan for, but the quality of it too.
When EVs charge, they don't draw perfectly smooth electrical current. Instead, they can introduce small distortions – known as harmonics – into the power system. At low levels these are manageable, but at scale they can affect power quality and equipment performance.
Strathclyde researchers have examined how different EV models behave under controlled charging conditions and found that electrical distortion tends to increase at lower charging power levels – a situation sometimes created by smart charging. In worst-case scenarios, distortion levels approached recognised power quality limits, although when multiple vehicles charged together, some harmonic components partially cancelled, reducing the overall impact.
For network operators, this raises questions about compliance with power-quality standards and the cumulative impact of millions of power-electronic devices operating simultaneously on low-voltage networks.
"Large-scale EV adoption is not just about adding more chargers," says Professor Galloway. "It also requires careful design of charging strategies and network controls to ensure power quality is maintained as millions of vehicles connect to the grid."
Strathclyde’s facilities de‑risking the future of energy systems
This is where Strathclyde facilities such as its Power Networks Demonstration Centre, Advanced Net Zero Innovation Centre and Institute for Energy & Environment come in. These centres bring together cutting-edge research, industrial-scale testing, advanced manufacturing, and skills development to support business-led innovation in clean energy, transport and digital technologies.
Strathclyde is one of the few research environments able to combine real network data, hardware-in-the-loop testing and whole-system modelling in a single facility. A capability that allows Strathclyde and its partners to de-risk innovation before it reaches live networks.
Enabling zero-cost EV charging through real-world vehicle-to-grid validation
PNDC supported one of the world’s first commercial vehicle-to-grid offerings by rigorously testing a bi-directional EV system under controlled grid conditions.
By adjusting voltage and frequency, the team evaluated power quality, system stability, and protection performance - ensuring the solution is ready for large-scale deployment. A 90 kVA bi-directional power source replicated live grid conditions, delivering high-fidelity test scenarios.
For example by building ‘digital twins’ – virtual models of the energy system – researchers can explore how changes in one part of the system ripple through the rest.
“Digital twins let us ask ‘what if?’ without taking real-world risks,” says Professor Campbell Booth, Principal Investigator on the ENSIGN Project. Capturing interactions across electricity, heat and hydrogen, projects can help ensure that decisions made to support EV charging do not create unintended consequences elsewhere in the energy system. “They allow operators and policymakers to test decisions before committing billions of pounds to infrastructure,” he adds.
In practice, this gives operators and policymakers the insight they need to anticipate bottlenecks, manage risk and plan coordinated investment as EV uptake accelerates.
The economic case for coordinated grid investment
Upgrading the electricity network isn’t just a technical challenge: it has economic consequences for consumers and the wider economy.
Analysis by the Centre for Energy Policy shows EV-related investment can help to grow the UK economy, increase GDP, jobs and wages – with the biggest long-term benefits coming from strong UK-based supply chains. However, it also cautioned that electricity and other consumer prices are likely to rise unless labour shortages and infrastructure costs are addressed.
Policy, network regulation and industrial strategy cannot be treated in isolation if the transition is to be both affordable and socially acceptable. The pace and cost of the EV transition depends on decisions being taken now on charging strategies, network investment and system coordination. Getting EVs on the road at scale requires an energy system that is ready to support them.
