Surrey County Council and charging infrastructure provider Connected Kerb have agreed on a £60m contract to support the rollout of thousands of public electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints across the county by 2030.
The agreement is hoped to cover 10,0000 chargepoint installations by the end of the decade, with Connected Kerb obtaining a license to operate the chargepoints for 15 years from installation.
The contract will release up to £60m of investment from Connected Kerb for the installation of publicly-available charging infrastructure.
Rolling out new chargers is hoped to incentivise more Surrey residents to switch to electric vehicles, with chargepoints being implemented at on-street locations and other key areas for community access, such as high streets.
Marisa Heath, cabinet member for environment, Surrey County Council, said: “We know that emissions from transport are a significant proportion of our carbon footprint in Surrey, so supporting residents to switch to an electric car is essential to helping us achieve our aim of being a net zero county by 2050.
“We’ve been working with Connected Kerb for almost a year, as part of our pilot phases that have seen us install over 100 chargepoints across Surrey over the last two years. We’re delighted this contract will enable us to speed up the roll-out of further chargepoints and expand our network in the coming years.”
The installation will cover a mix of chargepoints, with the model dependant on location. The rollout will include slower 3kW and 7kW chargepoints, fast 22kW chargepoints, rapid chargepoints and those that cater to users with accessibility needs.
Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, said: “If one local authority can deliver such a significant boost to the UK’s charging network, just imagine what we could achieve by 2030 if every city, county, and combined authority was empowered to do the same.
The partners hope to install hundreds of chargepoints within the first year and aim to make one in five of the EV charging bays more accessible to drivers with disabilities.
