UK to invest £37 million in infrastructure
The UK will invest the money with British engineering over a series of 12 projects to improve electric chargepoint infrastructure, as well as “revolutionising the experience” for EV drivers.
The Road to Zero strategy has been putting in a serious amount of effort to transform British mobility recently, as the government also added pressure to transform their own fleets, alongside a number of public mobility efforts. This measure aims to ensure that drivers who decide to purchase an EV will not be limited by the number of charging stations and their availability as the programme rolls out.
Future of Mobility Minister, Michael Ellis, described the initiative as follows: “Ensuring the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is reliable and innovative is encouraging more people to join the record numbers of ultra-low emission vehicle users already on UK roads.”
The variety of projects included in the grant will surely enable more seamless integration, as charging infrastructure is integrated more into city life. Urban Electric was awarded 3 million to roll out “pop-up” chargers, which can be discreetly built into the pavement for example. Other projects include the renovation of existing car parks to include mass charging capable charge points, and a project to leverage Virgin Media infrastructure to deliver “cost-effective and widespread charging, using high speed internet connections to better share information online on charging progress and parking spaces.”
Another company, Char.gy was awarded 2.3 million to develop wireless charging technology for vehicles in residential streets in order to eliminate the need for cables and infrastructure. They will not be working on the venture alone, however, as CEO Richard Stobart underlines: “Working in collaboration with the Open University and The University of Warwick’s WMG we are excited to show that our ability to retrofit to existing electric vehicles and enable several parking bays per lamp column without the need for cables will accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.”
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