Middlesbrough Council has appointed electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint operator Ubitricity to supply, install and manage up to 160 EV chargepoints at 90 locations across the town.
The deployment – reportedly the first of its kind in the North East of England delivering public EV charging at scale – is part of a 15-year contract between the council and Ubitricity, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell, and aims to enable residents without driveways to charge their cars.
The chargepoints, which reportedly take two hours or less to install, will be deployed from January 2024 in a mixture of existing bollards and lampposts across Linthorpe, Newport, Ayresome and the university area, and will charge at speeds of up to 5kW.
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Cllr Peter Gavigan, executive member for environment at Middlesbrough Council, said: “This initiative will make it much easier for people to charge their electric vehicle in a simple and convenient way, while removing what we know is a significant barrier to people choosing to go electric.
“To make sure people in Middlesbrough have the best access to a charging point, most will be installed on residential streets that either have no parking restrictions, or in those areas where resident parking schemes are in place.”
Funding for the project comes from the UK government’s On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, and Middlesbrough Council will receive a 5% revenue share throughout the lifetime of the contract.
This appointment follows recent news that Ubitricity has been selected by Bexley Borough Council to install and maintain a network of 100 on-street EV chargepoints across the London borough.
Achievements and innovations in EV charging will be celebrated at the third annual CiTTi Awards, which will be held on 26 November 2024 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Nominations officially open in March 2024. Visit www.cittiawards.co.uk to learn more about this unmissable event for the UK’s transportation sector.
