Birmingham City Council has teamed up with ubitricity for a lamppost electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint pilot scheme.
The chargepoint operator is joining forces with the local authority to roll out 560 chargepoints installed in lampposts across residential areas of Birmingham where many residents have limited access to off-street parking. The chargepoints will be spread across 82 streets across the city, and ubitricity notes that each chargepoint takes less than an hour to install.
The scheme, which is the first of its kind in Birmingham, is being funded by the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles’ (OZEV’s) On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) funding pool. So far, 300 chargepoints have been installed, with the remaining 260 set to be installed by the end of spring this year.
The chargepoints will be supplied, installed, owned, operated and maintained by ubitricity, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell and the UK’s largest chargepoint operator.
Councillor Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport at Birmingham City Council, emphasised the importance of this initiative in supporting the city’s long-term environmental goals. He stated: “While our focus as a council is on delivering the Birmingham Transport Plan and encouraging people to swap private vehicles for public transport, we also want to ensure that, for those who require use of a car, we have the infrastructure in place to facilitate use of low or zero-emission vehicles.”
Stuart Wilson, UK managing director of ubitricity, said the company is “delighted to be supporting Birmingham City Council as they begin this journey to create one of the largest public EV charging networks outside London, encouraging the transition to electric vehicles, and helping to create a cleaner and healthier, environment for the people of Birmingham.”
Brum goes electric
This is not the first time the UK’s second city has made efforts to encourage residents to switch to an EV by providing easier to access chargepoints in recent months.
In late January, EV chargepoint infrastructure firm Zest announced that it had installed a public charging hub in the suburb of Oscott in partnership with the local authority, providing rapid chargepoints to local residents. Zest has also previously partnered with other city councils, including Newport and Warrington, the latter of which saw the installation of 150 chargepoints, a mix of medium and slow-charge units, in 35 streets across the city.
