Birmingham City Council has announced the launch of a major project to expand the city’s electric vehicle (EV) charging network.
In partnership with charge point operator ubitricity, the highway authority is carrying out a pilot deployment of 560 lamppost EV charge points across residential areas of the city where access to private off-street parking is limited or unavailable.
The council said the rollout represents the first project of its kind in the city and is expected to set a new standard for on-street EV charging.
The project is being delivered with the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles’ On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme funding in response to data showing that most electric cars are kept at homes without access to a private driveway.
Acting on behalf of the council, ubitricity will supply, install, own, operate, and maintain the new charge points in lampposts on 82 streets across the city.
The first 300 charge points have already been installed, and the remaining 260 will be installed before the end of the spring, with each installation taking less than an hour under a process designed to reduce disruption and meet the council’s 'key requirement' to avoid street clutter.
Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: ‘While our focus as a council is on delivering the Birmingham Transport Plan and encouraging people to swap private vehicles for public transport, we also want to ensure that, for those who require use of a car, we have the infrastructure in place to facilitate use of low or zero-emission vehicles.’
UK managing drector Stuart Wilson said: ‘ubitricity is delighted to be supporting Birmingham City Council as they begin this journey to create one of the largest public EV charging networks outside London, encouraging the transition to electric vehicles, and helping to create a cleaner and healthier, environment for the people of Birmingham.’
