Electric vehicle drivers in Leicester are set to benefit from almost £100,000 of government funding to trial on-street residential EV charge points in the city.
Leicester City Council has received £95,340 from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and the Energy Savings Trust. This will be boosted by £32,000 of the council’s funds set aside for delivering Leicester’s Air Quality Action Plan.
A total of 11 streets will be involved in the pilot scheme, following a consultation from the council carried out in 2018. This encouraged residents that owned or were interested in owning an electric vehicle, but with no access to off-street parking, to suggest suitable locations.
The scheme aims to boost electric vehicle numbers in Leicester, and offer practical charging opportunities at or near home for EV drivers in the city. The new charge points will be installed into existing lampposts primarily, with some set up as freestanding units.
Work to install the charge points will start early next year, though it is unclear yet as to which operator will roll out the units. There are only a handful of networks that install EV charge points in lampposts. The main two are Zap-Map dynamic data partners ubitricity and Char.gy.
Cllr Adam Clarke, deputy city mayor for environment and transport, said: “Supporting a shift towards cleaner, greener transport is a vital part of the city’s air quality action plan. The number of people that are choosing to drive electric cars is growing and that is something we want to actively support.
“Exploring the use of on-street charging points is one way we can do that. This pilot scheme will allow us to gauge the impact of installing standard charging points in residential locations where we know there are people keen to use them.”
