Drivers warned they could be 'kicked out of parking spaces'

Drivers have been warned new software could see them kicked out of parking spaces to help manage electric car charging points. Specialist tools could tell people living in shared accommodation, flats or apartments they need to make room for other EV owners if there is a limited supply of plugs.

Rick Wilmer, CEO of EV experts Chargepoint, warned it was likely many buildings did not have adequate infrastructure in place for every owner. It means that using software to control the flow of motorists is important - especially as the cost of charging on the street is so high.

Motorists topping up at a public on-street charger will pay 20 per cent VAT on electricity compared with just five per cent at home. According to ZapMap, about 84 per cent of EV owners have access to a home charger to top-up their cars.

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But with two million EV owners in the UK, it means thousands still do not have the tools to charge on the cheaper rate. Mr Wilmer said: "It’s not one person who comes to that same charger every day.

"Let's say you’ve got a building with 100 flats and 30 of those tenants have EVs and you decide to put 10 EV chargers because you know that not all 30 tenants are going to charge at the same time. So how do you manage that."

New tools could pull together wait lists, Express reports. Owners could also make reservations to get access to a charger when they are back from work, Mr Wilmer added.

Apps could also notify drivers when their vehicle has finished charging and ask them to swiftly move it to create room for others. This would prevent drivers from having to use public bays and fork out on a premium just to top-up their vehicles.

Mr Wilmer added: "If you get your vehicle fully charged you get a notification saying "hey, move your vehicle" so the next person can go charge their vehicle. But I'm a nice landlord and I'm not going to send you notifications between midnight and 6am telling you to move your vehicle because you’ve stayed too long.

"All of these features that make this a good solution for a multi-family environment are all enabled through software and it's a big area of focus for us."