UK to invest further in charging point locations

13 August 2019

The UK Government has announced further investment in the country’s charging infrastructure as it pushes towards a ban on internal combustion engine vehicle sales by 2040.

An additional £2.5 million (€2.7 million) will be offered to fund the installation of over 1,000 new charging points, transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced. The funding will support the on-street residential charge point scheme, launched in 2017, which helps people access charging infrastructure near their homes when they do not have off-street parking.

It will go towards helping local authorities to install these charge points, which can be built into existing structures like lamp-posts. The scheme aims to encourage even more people to choose an electric vehicle by making it easier to charge their cars near home, following a 158% increase in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales in July 2019 compared to July last year.

The scheme already has 16 local authorities prepared to install 1,200 charge points this year. The Transport Secretary is now doubling funding to meet demand and accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles as the UK moves towards net zero emissions by 2050 and further improve air quality.

′It is fantastic that there are now more than 20,000 publicly accessible charge points and double the number of EV charging locations than petrol stations, but we want to do much more,’ Shapps comments. ′It is vital that electric vehicle drivers feel confident about the availability of charge points near their homes, and that charging an electric car is seen as easy as plugging in a smartphone.’

′That is why we are now doubling the funding available for local authorities to continue building the infrastructure we need to super-charge the zero-emission revolution, right across the country.’

The allocation of funding for on-street residential charging points is part of the £1.5 billion (€1.6 billion) investment underpinned by the Road to Zero Strategy.

As part of this, the UK Government is also investing £37 million (€39.8 million) into British engineering to develop electric charging point infrastructure that could rapidly expand the UK’s charging network for people without off-street parking.

Other innovations to receive investment, announced last month, include underground charging systems, solar-powered charging forecourts and wireless charging projects.

Char.gy, an electric charging company, has been awarded over £2.3 million (€2.5 million) and will use the funding to deploy wireless charging technology on residential streets without the need for trailing cables and additional infrastructure.

This would allow EVs to simply park next to a charging point and removes another worry over charging such vehicles, in the street clutter they would cause.