Surrey County Council has announced the largest on-street EV charging point scheme in the UK, aimed at delivering 10,000 public chargers at over 1,500 locations across across streets and public car parks by 2030 after a £60 million investment from a private charging contractor.
Connected Kerb, the London-based firm, provides EV charging solutions for the public sector and it’s aiming to deliver 190,000 chargepoints before 2030, or 63 per cent of the UK government’s 300,000 charge point estimate.
The company said: “At present, there is one charger per 9,000 residents in Surrey, but the rollout will see this figure dramatically increase. The partnership expects to deliver over 5,000 fast charging points by 2027, including over 500 rapid charging points across the county.”
The project will see the installation of a mix of charging points. This will include slower 3kW and 7kW chargers, as well as fast 22kW Gecko chargers and, in some locations, rapid charging points. Connected Kerb’s product range also includes free-standing and wall-mounted Limpet and Scarab chargers, as well as the Chameleon which will cater to those with accessibility needs.
Although the partnership will be spread out over the next seven years, the plans are to install hundreds of charge points within the first year, aiming to make one in five of the EV charging bays more accessible to drivers with disabilities in recognition of the need to make EV adoption a practical reality for the 2.35 million blue badge holders on UK roads.
For deciding the locations, Surrey Council has launched a consultation to ask for recommendations from all residents on where would they like to see the charge points.
Its guidelines for the charge points are that the spots should have demand for EV charging, such as within a few minutes’ walk of residential properties, should have safe and legal parking with enough pavement space (ideally two metres or more), and be near a power supply.
The map already has over 1,500 suggestions, indicating that residents are inclined to have their say and that the project should start seeing more accessibility for EV charging for current owners, as well as pushing more people towards one.
The recent Net Zero Review, published by the Government’s advisor Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MP, highlighted the opportunity for local authorities to take a leading role in the rollout of charging infrastructure.
Connected Kerb’s CEO Chris Pateman-Jones said: “If one local authority can deliver such a significant boost to the UK’s charging network, just imagine what we could achieve by 2030 if every city, county, and combined authority was empowered to do the same. The recent Net Zero Review was clear – local authorities can become the driving force behind the rollout of charging infrastructure across the country, and our partnership with Surrey County Council is case and point.
“If local authorities are the door to a clean transport future, then charging networks like Connected Kerb are the key, providing the tools and expertise needed to unlock the transition at the pace and scale required to reach net zero. Although the Government’s estimate of 300,000 chargers by 2030 may feel ambitious, it’s eminently possible – and necessary – to achieve; this deal proves it.”
In addition to the EV charging points, the contract will deliver significant value to Surrey residents through Connected Kerb’s social value projects. These will cover a range of initiatives including working with local educational centres to provide industry support to pupils interested in learning about EV chargepoints, providing employability support to vulnerable young people, as well as supporting a number of charities within the county.
In other news, last week, Connected Kerb became the latest network to go live on Zap-Pay, the simple way to pay for EV charging across networks from Zapmap.
The completed integration means that a total of almost 7,000 charging devices across the UK are now Zap-Pay enabled. As well as being able to search for charge points, plan longer journeys, and share updates with other EV drivers, Zap- Map users can now pay quickly and easily for their EV charging on all nine networks up and down the UK.
