£185million is available for local authorities to expand electric vehicle (EV) charge points across key locations in England.
This fund is part of the tranche 2 local electric vehicle infrastructure (LEVI) funding launched in March 2023. The applications opened on 2 April and close on 19 July and will require local authorities to submit comprehensive EV growth plans.
The UK government is pushing through their Net Zero goals, requiring 80% of new cars to be fully electric by 2030. This will increase to 100% by 2035. Heavy goods vehicles will also be required to be fully electric by 2040, which makes earning these funds more important than ever.
Over the years, Project Centre’s EV team has assisted local authorities across the UK with developing comprehensive EV strategies. Recently, we worked with the City of Edinburgh Council and with Merton Council to implement new charge points and encourage drivers to switch to EV cars.
We spoke to our EV Consultant Lead, Richard Drew, to hear more about his experience.
Q. Richard, you have over 20 years of experience working on smart mobility and EV consultations. Why is promoting EV uptake so important right now and what are the main challenges to its adoption?
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that the UK government is pushing for decarbonising the transport sector. The latest World Health Organisation reports showed alarming statistics for air pollution, which is massively impacting the environment and the communities’ health.
More drivers are making the switch, but the number of registered EVs across the UK is still low. We can’t really blame the drivers for that. When I attend community consultations, even people who are in support of EV uptake often express fair concerns about the lack of charge points in their neighbourhoods.
The UK government’s “Taking charge: the electric vehicle infrastructure strategy” identified a need for between 300,000 and 700,000 publicly available charge points to meet demand by 2030. I think this is a key point to accelerate EV uptake. We need to provide drivers with the right infrastructure to facilitate the switch, starting with increasing the number of charge points and finding the optimal locations for their implementation.
Q. Can you share your experience working on EV growth plans? And what makes these successful?
My EV projects increased while I was working for South Gloucestershire Council within their transport strategy team. I managed the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles’ “Go Ultra Low West” project, to obtain EV grants for developing rapid charging hubs across the region.
This experience gave me an in-depth understanding of the public sector challenges. Some of which include community engagement, the need for funding and often a lack of internal workforce resources. Within the Council and later as a part of Energy Saving Trust’s Local Government Support Programme team, I developed workshops and training on all aspects of EV and charge point infrastructure delivery.
Here at Project Centre, I took over the consultancy lead of a dedicated EV team, which has delivered comprehensive strategies for a wide number of local authorities in recent years.
We have a strong understanding of the current policy and funding landscape for public EV charging infrastructure, as well as the main challenges and opportunities of delivering this. Often when I hold initial meetings with clients, I get asked how many charge points we’ll need to install and how much will it cost them. My answer is usually to take a step back. Increasing the number of charge points is important, but identifying the optimal location for these is crucial. Our team uses complex Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to assess the current situation and to propose suitable locations for EVs. It seems like a longer process, but it’s the only way you can make it work to drive real behaviour change in drivers.
Q. What projects have you worked on at Project Centre and how was the outcome?
One of my most recent projects involved delivering an EV expansion plan for Merton Council. The scope was identifying areas of demand for public EV charging across the borough, ensuring viable provision within a reasonable walking distance of all residents.
We used GIS data to create a detailed analysis of the current provision and to enable us to map the likely future demand. We’re now working with the Council to deliver engagement activities, presenting our findings to the community and stakeholders as well as listening to their needs. We will finalise an action plan following the engagement activities’ completion.
Prior to delivering the strategy for Merton, we built a close relationship with clients at the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC), which firstly commissioned us to deliver an electric vehicle strategy and expansion plan, and secondly a review of their current car club operations contract.
I was very proud to receive the CEC client feedback, who was incredibly satisfied with our consultancy support and our communication skills.
“Project Centre’s support was invaluable in guiding the Council, liaising with third parties and coordinating a wide range of technical inputs to produce an Outline Business Plan and in turn a Business Plan; which formed the commercial framework for the future roll-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the city.
These competencies were a significant asset to the Council at a time of significant resource constraints, providing the essential capacity and skillsets required to undertake such a technically focused baselining and modelling analysis. Project Centre took on this challenge and delivered well and to the satisfaction of the Council and external funders.” – CEC Council
Thanks, Richard for taking the time to talk us through your EV policies expertise!
Do you need support with developing an EV strategy to earn the LEVI fund tranche 2? Get in touch with our expert team today: Enquiries – Marston Holdings
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