It has been announced that Liverpool is set to have one of the UK’s largest electric vehicle charging networks as the city’s capacity is set to treble.
It is set to install a network of 300 on-street electric vehicle charge points with the locations to be chosen by residents and businesses. The current charging network is a network of 150 and is set to increase to 450.
Liverpool City Council is looking to use this investment in charging infrastructure to tackle the noth-south divide in EV adoption and achieve its carbon net zero target by 2030. One of the most common barriers for EV adoption is the lack of accessible charging points and therefore, this roll out will help tackle this.
Cllr Dan Barrington, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Highways for Liverpool City Council said: “I’m delighted we’ve begun to install this new network of EV charge points as it provides a huge boost in tackling poor air quality and reducing the city’s carbon footprint. This programme puts down a real mark of intent to provide the necessary infrastructure to help the move away from petrol and diesel powered cars. The fact that the roll-out is being led by community requests means the points are going where the demand is needed most which means they’ll be getting maximum usage. And hopefully the demand will grow meaning the need for more charging points to be installed.”
The roll out will come as a two-part project which will see ubitricity take over the repair of Liverpool’s existing charging infrastructure and then roll out more charge points to help enable residents to make a transition to EV, said the release.
Toby Butler, UK managing director of ubitricity said “Liverpool is investing in an impressive on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging network, making the transition to EV much more accessible to their residents. In line with their plans to reach Net Zero by 2030 Liverpool is helping to lead the country in decarbonising their roads and improving air quality. By creating such a large and accessibly public network, Liverpool City Council is paving the way for the residents of Liverpool who want to switch to EV.”
The release continued to say that the new ubitricity charge points, which are installed directly into existing street lampposts, charge at a speed of up to 5kW and take just under 2 hours to install. The rollout is planned for key residential and commercial locations, allowing residents to easily charge hybrid and electric vehicles on the street where they live.
Source and picture: Ubitricity
