The UK’s first residential street fully converted to cater for EV charging has been unveiled.
Coined ‘Electric Avenue, W9’, the project, a collaboration between Siemens, Ubitricity and Westminster City Council, has successfully converted 24 lampposts into EV charge points using existing city infrastructure.
Residents can now charge EVs at various locations along the half-mile long Sutherland Avenue in London, with a further two adjoining roads due to be completed in the coming weeks.
“In a city that suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the country, we need to be supporting the change to green technology as much as we can,” said Cllr Andrew Smith, Westminster City Council cabinet member for environment and highways.
“‘Electric Avenue, W9’ gives us a glimpse into the future of streets in Westminster, where we hope to provide the infrastructure needed for our residents to make the switch to cleaner, greener transport.”
Westminster City Council currently has more EV points than any UK local authority, with a total of 296 lamp column charge points in the city, 24 of which are located on ‘Electric Avenue, W9’.
The council said it saw a 40% growth in EVs charged in the borough in 2019.
There are now plans to reach 1,000 charge points across Westminster within the next year, as it has twice the number of locally registered EVs than any other inner London borough, and the most among all the other London boroughs.
The transformation of Sutherland Avenue utilises existing infrastructure for EV charge points, creating a network that looks to provide charge to an expected 8,000 EVs forecast to be registered in Westminster by 2025.
Siemens and Ubitricity have now completed over 1,300 installations covering the city, partly funded from the Go Ultra Low Cities Scheme.
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