Greater access to electric vehicle charge points has been given a fresh injection of cash by the Government with £56m to support the roll out of 2400 chargepoints in the short term and help plan for thousands more over a longer timeframe.
The funding will be used in two ways, says the Government.
Part will be used to increase the the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot, which includes £1.9m for Cumbria, £8.5m to the West Midlands and expansion of existing pilots to £7.4m in Durham and £3.6m to North Yorkshire.
The rest will boost the existing On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS). This assists councils across England to secure dedicated resources to develop in-house expertise and to coordinate chargepoint plans and work with private operators.
Technology and Decarbonisation Transport Minister, Jesse Norman, who announced the funding, said:
The government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans.
Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs.
According to Zap-Map, the electric car route planner, there are now nearly 38,000 charging devices across the UK at the end of January, representing a 31% increase year on year.
For company car drivers needing a quick charge on longer business journeys, there’s now a further 170 new rapid and ultra-rapid chargers to choose from, a significant 77% increase over the same period last year.
