EV charging infrastructure provider Zest has installed a public charging hub in Oscott, Birmingham, in partnership with the local council.
The rapid charging spaces represent a welcome investment in the community, which Zest says now has easy access to EV charging facilities close to homes and local shops.
Delivered in partnership with the local authority, this is an addition to the growing network Zest is funding and operating in the West Midlands as part of its push to develop EV charging in parts of the UK that lack sufficient EV infrastructure.
Robin Heap, CEO of Zest, said: “Most of us will soon be driving EVs and the UK needs more public charging now, especially close to where people live. Zest local charging, like this facility in Oscott, provides new community assets that breathe new life into communities across the country.”
Zest is backed by the government-sponsored Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF) which is managed by Zouk Capital. The firm oversaw an investment of £30 million into the company in 2021. The investor-operator says this enables it to invest in anticipation of future demand. Meeting government targets for EV adoption comes as a huge opportunity for the charging industry which will have to scale up rapidly to support the transport transition.
In December, Newport City Council signed a 15-year concession agreement with Zest, seeing the firm provide 144 chargepoints across 77 locations in the city on the south-east coast of Wales. The project is equally funded by the Welsh government, Zest and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles’ (OZEV) On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS).
Other partnerships Zest has undertaken with local councils include an agreement that saw it install 150 chargepoints, a mix of medium and slow-charge units, in 35 streets across Warrington. The deal was in part funded by the OZEV Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) scheme, which is an evolution of the ORCS.
ORCS, which offered to fund 75% of the costs of local authorities providing public chargepoints for residents who don’t have off-street parking, is now closed to new applications, and ongoing projects must be completed by March 2025. LEVI recently provided £3.6 million seed money for an initiative known as OXLEVI, which plans to triple the number of public chargepoints in Oxfordshire by the end of 2025.
In its annual survey, EV charge point mapping service Zapmap said over half of EV drivers use the public charging network at least once a month. Zapmap’s survey found that 61% of respondents say public charging infrastructure has improved in the last year in terms of both reliability and overall growth (available charging infrastructure has, according to Zapmap, increased by 38% over the last 12 months).