London: Ubitricity to add 200 streetlamp EV chargers

Over 200 public electric vehicle chargers will go up on lampposts in London’s green borough of Richmond, provided by Ubitricity. The project was funded with a £300,000 grant from the Go Ultra Low City Scheme run by the Department for Transport.

The funding was matched with £100,000 from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and aims to support those residents without access to off-street parking. Ubitricity’s lamppost chargers will be installed by Siemens, who was awarded the installation contract for a total of 210 charge points for electric vehicles.

The equipment tie in between the two infrastructure providers has already previously been shown to be effective in London. Site surveys in Richmond have been completed, with installation underway and expected to be completed and operational by the end of March. The project included requests from residents submitted on the council’s website, which led to the identification of 39 locations in the borough, where residents can now charge plug-in vehicles.

Councilor Alexander Ehmann said that “reducing emissions from exhausts is critical to achieving air quality improvement in our borough. By investing in infrastructure that supports residents in their switch to less-polluting forms of transport we hope that increasing numbers will make the change.”

The electrification of London is indeed well underway, with Chris Beadsworth from Siemens adding that they expect to see “over a thousand sockets installed across London for its residents over the coming months”.

This latest push is part of the above-mentioned Go Ultra Low City Scheme (GULCS). The framework contract provides a total of £3.7 million to four parties to help deliver charging points across London boroughs. The initiative is hosted by Transport for London (TfL), London Councils and the Greater London Authority. The same scheme supports the other providers of lamppost charging, namely Char.gy as well as Joju and Swarco.

Where Siemens and Ubitricity provide a special cable, that features a mobile electricity meter, Char.gy, for example, is unmetered.

The Go-ultra Low City scheme is funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles. The project is aiming to deliver 1,150 charge points for electric vehicles across London boroughs by the end of 2020.

ubitricity.co.uk, richmond.gov.uk

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.