Charging and driving an electric vehicle will be easier, cheaper and more convenient in the future, thanks to double the funding for more chargepoints on residential streets next year and new plans to make sure drivers can easily access real-time information about places to charge their electric vehicle.
The Transport Secretary announced yesterday that government funding will be doubled to £10 million for the installation of chargepoints on residential streets next year. This could fund up to another 3,600 chargepoints across the country and make charging at home and overnight easier for those without an off-street parking space.
The government is also looking at how to make information about all public chargepoints including locations and power ratings openly available in a standard format for the first time. The Department for Transport will look at how real-time information could be published, showing whether chargepoints are in working order and currently in use, which could then be used by developers and incorporated into sat navs and route mapping apps
Ensuring that charging an electric vehicle is a convenient and simple process is crucial to meeting the government’s ambitions of phasing out petrol and diesel cars.
Voltia spreads across UK for EV market
Menzies take 50 Voltia vans
Voltia, a supplier of electric vans for urban delivery and currently operating in eleven European countries, has won another major order. After a Paris deal to supply Chronopost and a successful project in London (under the auspice of the Mayor of London), Voltia is spreading to other parts of the UK and Ireland.
Menzies Distribution, a newspaper and magazine distribution company, has decided to purchase almost 50 new electric vans from Voltia (of which 20 will go to Scotland). It will expand its emission-free fleet to 120 vehicles. For the islands this is an uncommon development as most electric vehicles are located in London. This transaction is considered to be one of the largest one-off purchases of electric vehicles in the UK and Ireland.
Voltia expects to deliver the ordered vehicles by the end of March 2020. Wakefield, Preston, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Belfast, or Dublin will then be added to London, Paris, Marseille and Dortmund as cities where the Voltia e-vehicles are making emissions free deliveries.
Making EV charging regional
Transport Minister George Freeman
We urge local councils to make use of the funding.
As DfT Sec of State Grant Shapps announces double funding for chargepoints, Future of Transport Minister George Freeman urges the councils to draw down the money and make it happen.
DfT Minister George Freeman,
The new government is accelerating UK leadership in digitalisation and decarbonisation through our future of transport strategy. Supporting the smart use of open data for new apps to help passengers and drivers plan journeys, and to reduce congestion and pollution, is key. Comprehensive chargepoint data is crucial for mapping charging hotspots and notspots for consumers, to help to drive forward the electric vehicle revolution.
We urge local councils to make use of the funding available to ensure their residents feel the benefits of cleaner transport. Government and industry have supported the installation of over 17,000 devices providing over 24,000 publicly available chargepoints, of which over 2,400 are rapid chargepoints. The UK now has one of the largest charging networks in Europe with more locations where you can charge your car than there are petrol stations.
The government has already challenged industry to provide debit and credit card payment at all newly installed rapid chargepoints and develop a roaming solution across the charging network, allowing electric vehicle drivers to use any public chargepoint through a single app or payment method.
