The Borough of Ealing, London, is set to gain 48 on-street EV chargepoints across 12 individual locations as part of a new partnership.
Ealing Council’s investment into on-street charging will see all residents “within a 10 minutes’ walk from a charging point”.
As per the partnership, Liberty Charge will own and operate the on-street EV chargepoints with Virgin Media 02 set to support the delivery, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of December 2022.
According to the Council, the installation of EV chargepoints came to fruition after EV drivers in the borough called for more to be installed. In doing so, more EV drivers will have the confidence of finding an area to charge their vehicles and reduce charging anxiety.
Reducing this anxiety could also help increase the number of EV drivers on the borough’s roads. Analysis conducted by Paythru found that 54% of participants stated that charging anxiety would prevent them from taking up an EV.
As such, key to spearheading the uptake of EVs across the UK and in turn reduce the carbon footprint of Britain’s transportation network, is the scaling of chargepoints.
“It was great to meet with Liberty Charge, celebrate our new partnership and get a first-hand look at one of our new charger sockets. This is just the beginning, we are committed to working together to boost the number of EV chargepoints across the borough as we strive to achieve net zero in carbon emissions for the borough by 2030,” said councillor Peter Mason, leader of Ealing Council.
“We want to rapidly expand the number of accessible EV chargepoints for those without a driveway or home charging option. It is vital that local people are given a say in where these chargers are being installed which is why we have a further 216 EV charging sockets due for consultation in early 2023.”
Increasing the number of on-street chargepoints has become a vital aspect of the EV charging ecosystem. Being a London borough, many local residents may not have access to a driveway or a private charger. This prevents many potential EV drivers from adopting the clean transportation technology.
By increasing the number of on-street chargers in the area, this helps bridge the gap for drivers who have no access to private chargers and thus helps dispel the disparity around EV charging.
This is something that was highlighted recently by Melanie Shufflebotham, chief operating officer and co-founder of Zap-Map, who exclusively told Current+: “The scaling up of on-street charging, alongside the rollout of local high-powered hubs, will undoubtedly have a positive impact – and should encourage anyone considering switching to an EV to do so sooner rather than later.
“Greater London has been impacted by the rollout of slower on-street chargers to support residential areas in central London.”
