Electric Cars and On-street Charging

The link between ownership of electric cars in the UK and the provision of charging facilities is explored in the following articles.

This is Money, 23 February 2017, reported that the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) made £1 million available to fund installations during the current financial year and an additional £1.5 million for 2017/18.
Residents who want one of the twin charge points added on their street need to ask their local authority to take up their case, funding then being allocated on a first-come first-served basis. See:
A BBC news article on charging EVs (February 2018) opened with the question “What if you live in a flat?”
The option of asking the local authority to install a street charging point is described, OLEV having set aside £4.5m to support such applications over the next two years, and offering to pay up to 75% of the costs of installation, to a maximum of £7,500. However, only five local authorities were said to have applied for money from the scheme: they are Portsmouth, Kensington and Chelsea, Cambridge, Luton and Kettering.
Six councils in London - Richmond, Hounslow, Westminster, Wandsworth, Hackney and Kensington and Chelsea - have been trialling charge points installed in lamp posts next to parking bays. These may be slower than dedicated charge points, but they are cheaper to install, and do not require additional street furniture. Government subsidies have encouraged some employers to install charge points at work. See:
Details of the goverment’s On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme are available at:

In May 2018 Urban Electric Networks Ltd reported a £600,000 trial of its telescopic pop-up street charging device, the UEone, with Oxford City Council. Details at:
A Guardian article dated 9 July 2018 reported government plans “to install hundreds of thousands of additional charging points for electric vehicles”. It mentions a study for the RAC Foundation which found that growth in electric car use could be stalled by limitations in the public charging network, and AA research showing that eight out of 10 drivers see the lack of charging points as a stumbling block to them buying an electric vehicle.
BBC news 30 Nov 2018:
Tesco, in partnership with Volkswagen, plans to install almost 2,500 charging bays at up to 600 stores by 2020. A standard 7kW charger will be available for free, but drivers will have to pay for a faster service. See:
The Energy Saving Trust has a web page with further information on the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme. See:
An article by electric vehicle charging point provider Pod Point dated November 12, 2018 is headed:
No Driveway? You Can Still Have an Electric Car”
Options for charging cars such as workplace, on-street, rapid hubs, retail and commercial car parks are discussed at:
Another charging point provider, Rolec EV, describes products designed for on-street locations, such as marketplaces, railway stations, sports venues, restaurants, and shopping parks. See:
Go Ultra Low offers a home charging calculator:




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