Warrington Borough Council has selected public access electric vehicle (EV) charger operator Zest to operate 56 new chargers at a major shopping centre.
Zest is providing 56 EV charging stations at the Time Square shopping centre in the centre of Warrington. Most will be 7kW charging bays for quick top-ups, with four rapid bays available for faster charging.
The first 25 bays have already been opened, with the remainder set to open in phases throughout June.
Robin Heap, CEO and founder of Zest, said: “People want to switch to EV, but they need to see abundant and reliable charging infrastructure being rolled out.
“Working in partnership with forward-looking local authorities like Warrington, we’re building at a scale that inspires confidence in the EV transition and makes a tangible contribution to net zero.”
Public chargepoint rollout needs to speed up
With over half of UK drivers citing a lack of available chargepoints as an issue preventing them from switching to an EV, it is clear that chargepoint availability needs to expand. And fast.
Recent data from Cornwall Insight shows that the UK needs to more than double the install rate of publicly available EV chargers to meet its target of 300,000 installations by 2030.
While there is undoubtedly an urgent need for more EV infrastructure, there are some positive developments in the field. A 2023 report from car manufacturer Vauxhall showed that 71.6% of UK councils had no published strategy for rolling out on-street residential EV charging, but some local authorities and London Boroughs are making the issue a priority.
The London Borough of Haringey recently installed 38 new charging stations across the borough to meet the growing demand for EV charging among residents, while Suffolk County Council recently received a £7.3 million funding injection to speed up EV charger rollout.
