Thursday 25 August 2022

Nine councils to plug in 1,000 EV charging points with £20m funding

A new pilot that aims to provide electric vehicle (EV) drivers better access to charging points across England is being backed by £20 million of funding from government and industry.

Under the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) scheme, nine local authorities and industry will work to install more than 1,000 new EV chargers, including on-street charge points and petrol station-style charging hubs.

The council winners of the funding are Barnet, Dorset, Durham, Kent, Midlands Connect (with Lincolnshire as a lead authority), North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Warrington.

The pilot is part of a wider £450 million scheme that aims to help residents without private driveways to have better access to EV chargers and grow the charging network across the country to support the uptake of zero-emission vehicles.

Decarbonisation Minister Trudy Harrison said: “We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV chargepoints, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.

“This scheme will help to level up electric vehicle infrastructure across the country so that everyone can benefit from healthier neighbourhoods and cleaner air.”

The new LEVI fund builds on the success of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) which has seen nearly 2,900 charging points installed so far.