West Berkshire Council picks ubitricity to deploy EV charge points
West Berkshire Council has appointed ubitricity to supply, install and manage up to 250 electric vehicle charge points, expanding its existing charging infrastructure network.
The deployment is part of a four-year contract between the Council and ubitricity, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell, covering charge points in a range of on street and residential locations. This announcement follows on from the company recently passing the milestone of its 7,000th UK charge point, as it continues to build momentum in bring more publicly available EV charging to the millions of UK drivers without private parking and to help local authorities establish accessible charging infrastructure.
The scheme aims to improve the availability of local EV charging infrastructure for residents without private off-street parking. Through various funding streams, we can receive grants covering up to 60% of residential charge point procurement and installation costs. The ubitricity charge points charge at a speed of up to 5kW and can be installed in as little as 3 hours. The rollout in West Berkshire is planned to be installed in key residential and commercial locations, allowing residents to easily charge hybrid and electric vehicles on the street where they live.
ubitricity will be deploying up to 250 charge points across West Berkshire using their bollard solutions. These bollard charge points are designed to draw power from existing streetlamps and are ideal for rapid residential rollouts, provide a low power, low cost and near-home charging option for councils and local authorities.
The added social value benefits of this contract will include using a local workforce where possible and supporting two locally-based electricians to upskill and complete a City & Guilds EV installation course. In addition, the contract will support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) events in local secondary schools.
ubitricity are also committed to sustainable design and where appropriate will re-use or re-purpose equipment as an alternative to recycling.
Cllr Adrian Abbs, Executive Member for Climate Action, Recycling and Biodiversity at West Berkshire Council said: “With the increase of private EV ownership, especially with 2nd and 3rd hand EV’s becoming prevalent, it’s important that we work to ensure residents without private charging points can still have access to chargers. It is also essential that we work towards the right network of public chargers across West Berkshire and so remove range anxiety for all types of EV owners.
“Just as important as the installation is the maintenance and so availability of the charging points. This initiative is a step towards our desired end goal of enabling clean air, cost effective transport for as many as possible.
“I am therefore pleased to be adding to our network of charge points and look forward to the benefits they bring to all of our residents.”
Toby Butler, UK Managing Director at ubitricity said: “Across the UK we are seeing growing demand from councils and local authorities of all sizes for our industry-leading public charging infrastructure. We are the UK’s largest public EV charge point operator with more than 7,000 charge points now live and are delighted to be welcoming West Berkshire Council into our ever-growing portfolio of partners. We are so happy to be working with West Berkshire on a project that will make EV ownership even more convenient for both residents and businesses.”
