The UK’s Future of Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood, has said that more than 100,000 charge points are being installed using government funding from the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund. She said that these are all geared towards overnight charging for drivers who lack their own off-street parking, meaning the majority of them will be AC charging only.
Ms Greenwood outlined that the charge points are being delivered in partnership with both businesses and local authorities across the UK. One example follows the recent announcement of £300 million in private investment by the charge point operator Believ, which aims to build 30,000 new charge points. The government says it expects to see private investment worth up to approx. £6 billion into further charge points by 2030. All of this joins an estimated 80,000 public charge points which are already present in the UK.
This funding drive is being supported with a push by government to reduce the barriers to installation of new chargers. It states it has been helping local authorities such as Suffolk County Council to ‘fast-track delivery’ of these chargers through partnerships with CPOs like Believ, and believes that other councils will follow. In May, the government also removed the need for planning permission in order to install EV chargepoints – making it significantly faster and cheaper for people and businesses to install either public or private charge points.
Guy Bartlett, CEO of Believ, said: “It’s fantastic to see government and private industry working together to accelerate the EV charging rollout. Collaboratively, we recognise the scale of investment required and the urgency of the need. Confidence in EVs will continue to grow as drivers see more infrastructure going into the ground. At Believ, we are very proud to be at the heart of this journey.”
Ms Greenwood added: “This government is powering up the EV revolution by rolling out a chargepoint every 29 minutes and our support to roll out over 100,000 local chargepoints in England shows we’re committed to making even more progress.”
