Connected Kerb is planning on installing 190,000 public on-street electric vehicle (EV) chargers by 2030, stating this will require up to £1.9 billion in investment.
New partnerships have been signed this year for 10,000 chargers, with the majority of these to be installed in West Sussex by 2030 following Connected Kerb winning a tender from West Sussex Council thought to be the UK’s largest ever deployment of EV chargers by a local authority.
Kent County Council has also chosen Connected Kerb to deploy at least 600 chargers by 2023, with the installation of these to begin this year. Many of these chargers will be located in parish towns and rural areas across Kent, with the intention of providing chargers for currently underserved communities.
In May, the company announced it would be installing 40 EV chargers in the first phase of a scheme in partnership with Kent County Council, with this scheme designed to provide a blueprint for local authorities across the UK to deliver sustainable, affordable and accessible EV charging infrastructure to hard-to-reach UK communities.
Other council tenders to be announced today (8 November) by Connected Kerb include Coventry (300 chargers), Cambridge (360 chargers) and Plymouth (100 chargers), while it has also recently announced Milton Keynes (250 chargers), Warrington (30 chargers) and Medway (30 chargers), as well as Glasgow City Council, East Lothian Council, Shropshire County Council and Hackney Council, which all form part of the Agile Streets trial and will see 100 chargers installed.
Deals for a further 30,000 chargers are expected to conclude next year.
Connected Kerb said that the commitments from local authorities to install 10,000 chargers represents a near seven-fold increase in the number of chargers installed through the On-Street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS) over its entire history, having – as of July – funded the installation of 1,459 public charging devices, with a further 3,200 charge points to be installed in the near future.
Dr Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, said: “With deals confirmed for 10,000 chargers this year alone and 30,000 more expected next year, we are demonstrating that we’re getting on with the job and delivering the change that needs to happen – not just talking about it.”
Current± recently caught up with Pateman-Jones to discuss the Agile Streets project, as well as how the company is working with the London Borough of Lambeth to demonstrate how affordable and accessible public EV charging infrastructure can be deployed to tackle inequality.
The company has installed 1,000 chargers in 2021 alone, and expects to have 5,500 installed across the UK by the end of 2022.
