Go Eve secures £750K to advance its DockChain EV charging technology

Go Eve,
a joint spin-out from University College Dublin (UCD) and Imperial College
London, has secured £750,000 in funding from Innovate UK and private investors
to further develop its electric vehicle (EV) charging technology. The funding
will support an 18-month project focused on improving DockChain, the company’s
patented technology that enables a single DC fast charger to serve multiple
parking bays.

Supported
by NovaUCD, Go Eve has developed DockChain to help fleet operators expand their
EV charging capacity without installing a separate fast charger at every
parking bay. The technology allows multiple vehicles to remain plugged in while
a compatible charger serves them sequentially, one at a time. This approach can
reduce the number of chargers and the electrical infrastructure required,
potentially lowering installation costs and accelerating deployment.

The new
project will focus on developing custom hardware, firmware and software to
improve DockChain’s ability to automatically start, stop and restart charging
sessions without physically disconnecting vehicles.

The
development follows experience from fleet installations, which has shown that
EVs can respond differently during charging sessions. Some vehicles may not
begin charging on the first attempt, while others may fail to restart after a
session has been paused. By addressing these issues, Go Eve aims to make
sequential charging more reliable and give fleet operators greater flexibility
to manage charging priorities and vehicle schedules.

John Goodbody, co-founder and Marketing Director of Go Eve, highlighted the growing
importance of optimising existing charging infrastructure and grid capacity as
UK commercial fleets transition to electric vehicles.

We’ve
already shown that fleets can serve more bays without multiplying the number of
fast chargers, that’s where the immediate cost and rollout benefit comes from
DockChain.
Working with fleets has also taught us that vehicles don’t always
behave exactly as expected at the charging connector. Some EVs need another
attempt to start; others can be reluctant to restart charging after power flow
is paused for grid, or priority reasons.
This project tackles those practical
issues so we can make DockChain more reliable and more flexible,

Goodbody
added.

Alongside
improving charging reliability, the project will explore the potential for
DockChain to support bidirectional charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services,
which could allow fleet operators to generate revenue when their vehicles are
not in use.

Supported
by Innovate UK’s Growth Catalyst, Investor Partnerships programme, the project
will be led by Go Eve’s engineering team in Wolverhampton, UK. The company aims
to deliver a production-ready version of DockChain in 2027, with existing units
eligible for upgrades.

Go Eve
is also seeking fleet operators to trial the technology at sites with limited
charging capacity, varying charging priorities or potential for V2G services.