Source London has announced plans to fix 300 of their broken charge points “by this summer”, after many local boroughs hand over maintenance responsibility.
When IER took private ownership of the Source London electric car charging network in September 2014, it was discovered that a third of the network’s 1400 charging points were inoperable. Since then very little has been done with neither local boroughs, Source London or the charge point manufacturers being able to agree on who was responsible for fixing the points.
According to IER, this in no longer the case and an agreement has been reached with some local councils which has handed Source London full responsibility of the charge points.
This ultimately gives them the power to invest in maintenance of the network and get it back to a good level of operation. However, it also gives them control over charge point fees.
Source London boss Christophe Arnaud told Autocar: “This will be the major step forward that will give us sole responsibility for maintenance at our cost,”
“We have done an audit and identified the 300 posts [chargers] that need repair or replacement. I have my hit list for repair by the summer,” he said.
“We have prepared everything we need for this: spare parts, warehouse, engineers. We are aiming at 99% operability,” added Arnaud.
Some reports suggest Source London could introduce charges up to £5 an hour to use their charge points in central London, although Source London won’t confirm that number.
Mr Arnaud did mention to Autocar that charge point fees would be relative to TfL’s zones 1-6 and that “It will cost us more in central London than outer London, so we will set our charges accordingly”.
Although these new charges may come as bad news to the thousands of EV drivers across the Uk, it will mean the charge points can be properly maintained and therefore relied upon. Previously Source London had a budget of just £480 per year per post, which explains how the network has deteriorated so badly.
Source London, Autocar
