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The largest roll-out of on-street charging by a local authority has been announced, with 10,000 new public chargers being installed across Surrey by 2030. At the moment, there are fewer than 39,000 public charge points in the whole of the UK, but the county council has struck a deal with charge point provider Connected Kerb to put in nearly a quarter as many again throughout Surrey over the next seven years. It follows the news that Ford's UK MD fears huge queues at charging points could turn buyers away from electric cars.
Lisa Brankin told the Financial Times: 'If we are going to switch to 100 per cent electric vehicles, we really need to have a wealth of public charging infrastructure and I'm not sure that there is a plan in place to allow that to happen. 'We have spent billions of dollars on electric vehicles. It is now coming fast, and we need this.' More than a fifth of new cars sold in the UK last year had a plug.
The project in Surrey is expected to cost £60m and will be funded by Connected Kerb, which charges drivers for using its devices. Connected Kerb CEO Chris Pateman-Jones said: 'If one local authority can deliver such a significant boost to the UK's charging network, just imagine what we could achieve by 2030 if every city, county and combined authority was empowered to do the same. 'Local authorities can become the driving force behind the rollout of charging infrastructure across the country.' Cllr Matt Furniss, Surrey's cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and growth, said: 'High-quality, reliable and accessible charging infrastructure is critical to accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles across the county and serving the needs of all our local communities. 'Surrey County Council has a commitment to be a carbon net-zero county by 2050, and a large part of us achieving that comes from supporting residents to make the switch to electric vehicles.' Transport minister Jesse Norman said: 'Today's announcement marks another step in the growth of our public charge point network, enabling more and more motorists to make the switch to electric vehicles.
'The UK is seeing hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment in EV charging across the country, with valuable support from the government, and it's great to see innovative British companies like Connected Kerb working with local authorities to deliver ambitious projects such as this one.' Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2030. Car Dealer discussed the government's target of banning new ICE sales by 2030 at our recent Car Dealer Live conference in Gaydon. You can read what our experts said here.
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