The London Borough of Lambeth has worked with ev charging firm Connected Kerb in a project to demonstrate how affordable and accessible public EV charging infrastructure can be.

The London Borough of Lambeth has worked with ev charging firm Connected Kerb in a project to demonstrate how affordable and accessible public EV charging infrastructure can be.

EV ownership is skyrocketing, with UK registrations up 117% in 2021 compared to last year already. However, the transition to EVs has exposed disparities between different communities across the UK. For example, those living in urban centres, high-rise flats and council estates are significantly less likely to have access to a private driveway, making it difficult to install home charging solutions. As a result, households which have access to a driveway make up 80% of EV owners, with the remaining 20% owned by those in houses or flats with no access to off-street parking. At the same time, these communities have the most to gain from the clean transport revolution due to being disproportionately exposed to the highest levels of toxic exhaust emissions and suffering significantly poorer air quality.

Lack of public charging infrastructure is a key barrier to greater EV adoption. There are current around 34 EVs on UK roads for every one public access on-street EV charger, making it difficult for drivers without off-street parking to charge at home.

Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, said: “People often think electric vehicles are the preserve of a fortunate few with detached houses and driveways, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. With running costs much lower than petrol and diesel cars, all communities, regardless of where they live, their social background, or whether they have a driveway or not, have lots to gain.

“Unfortunately, some communities are being failed by a classic chicken and egg scenario. Without high EV adoption, charge point operators won’t build public charging, and without reliable charging, why would anyone go electric? We have designed our business model to overcome this and with Lambeth Council, we are delivering a fairer and equitable clean transport future – here and right across the UK.”

Approximately a third of residents in Lambeth live on estates managed by the council and the majority of housing in the Borough does not have off-street parking. This means that a large proportion of drivers will have to rely on public EV charging infrastructure. The project will therefore act as a blueprint that can be adopted at scale by other boroughs, councils and cities across Britain to deliver an inclusive and equitable EV transition, serving all members of society, including the 40% of households nationally without off-street parking.

Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said: “London is leading the way in EVs – thanks to the GLA, TfL and boroughs have been working together and have delivered 7,000 points across the city, accounting for 30% of all charge points in the UK – but we must ensure no community is left behind in the transition.

“Equal access to public charging is a key step towards a fair switch to clean transport and vital if we are to meet our ambition of being a zero carbon city by 2030. Connected Kerb was the winner of the Mayor’s Civic Innovation Challenge on electric vehicles (EV) in 2018, where they worked with National Grid to successfully trial first-of-a-kind EV charging bays in London. Projects like this are a great example for the rest of London and the UK.”

The project in Lambeth includes 22 on-street EV chargers across 11 council estates in the Borough to provide easy access to public charging, even for those without off-street parking. It forms part of the council’s wider strategy to work with multiple charge point operators to install more than 200 charge points by 2022, with the aim of ensuring every household with no access to off-street parking is within a five-minute walk of their nearest charge point.