Midlands Connect, a transport strategy partnership, has launched a new electric vehicle (EV) planning tool to helps councils identify areas in need of more public chargepoints.
The tool, which has been developed for local authorities across the Midlands, is designed to analyse data about residents, including information about their lifestyles and behaviours, in order to identify new sites for EV chargers.
Based on certain criteria, the tool should choose areas with the highest need of EV chargepoints.
According to Midlands Connect, the criteria for ideal sites are low levels of off-road parking, meaning fewer people have access to chargers at home, poorer public transport access, fewer sustainable transport options and higher levels of deprivation.
Previous analysis from Midlands Connect suggests that the Midlands requires 17,461 new public EV chargepoints by 2025 to keep pace with increasing demand. By the end of the decade, estimates say that one in every four cars could be electric.
Matt Pain, the tool’s developer, said: “It’s really important that we support local authorities as they ramp up the installation of public electric vehicle chargers.
“This tool will make it easier for councils to identify sites where investment is needed most and will have the biggest positive impact.
“Public chargepoints don’t just belong in the most affluent areas, or those places where electric vehicle take up is already booming, we need to ensure that no part of the Midlands region is left behind, and that councils are able to step in and deliver in communities where the private sector is unlikely to intervene.”
Midlands Connect hopes that the tool will enable the local authorities using it to better identify suitable locations for the installation of EV infrastructure and develop better cases for central government funding.
