Edinburgh kicks-off on-street charging network plan
In Scotland, Edinburgh City Council has given the green light for a plan to build 66 on-street EV charging points in 14 hubs across the city by 2020. This is only the first phase of what is called the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Business Case.
The EV infrastructure plan for Edinburgh was given the go-ahead by the council’s Transport and Environment Committee in October. The plan involves the eventual installation of a total of 211 on-street charging points by 2023 at a cost of £3.3m (roughly 3.8 million euros).
Councillor Lesley Macinnes, who is the city’s Transport and Environment Convener, said “We’ve seen an exponential rise in the popularity of electric vehicles over the last few years, and we want to see this continue. Encouraging drivers to choose environmentally friendly modes of transport over diesel or petrol cars will have a real impact on air quality so it’s essential that we provide the infrastructure to allow this.”
Charging points will be placed strategically around Edinburgh, whereby project managers will liaise with parking and planning departments, along with Distribution Network Operator Scottish Power Energy Networks, to see the spread of infrastructure across the city.
In order to avoid clutter and the blocking of residential parking spots, the Council is making sure that charging points are installed on roads, rather than footpaths, and near, but not adjacent to residential housing. The goal is for electric vehicle bays to be operable 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the exclusive use of charging electric vehicles and not for parking. To ensure that this is the case, an enforcement policy is currently under development.
The Scottish government wants to phase out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032 with a number of different initiatives including supporting the purchase of electric bikes and pedelecs as well as “green” buses.
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