The British Office for Low Emission Vehicles as part of the public sector has to oversee the establishment of eight electric vehicle charging network around the UK.
They have to help the promoting of low emission vehicles manufacture and to setting up grants in order to promote public adoption of the idea. Over £400m were allocated by government in the most recent Spending Review to promote uptake of ultra-low carbon vehicle technologies.
First three UK charging points network are putted into work in London, Milton Keynes and the North East. These targeted cities were chosen because research shows an increased number of drivers with short range and frequent journeys around them and most likely to benefit from low emission vehicles. The government intends to match the funding of private business consortium to install the infrastructure.
Those eight electric vehicle charging points network are testing many technologies, operating models or business models in order to apply the feedback to a nationwide deployment. “The insights we gain from these projects will inform a national rollout of infrastructure for electric vehicles. OLEV is not prescribing particular technological solutions, it is adopting a technology-neutral approach,” said a spokeswoman for Office for Low Emission Vehicles.
Most well known is the London scheme after reports that it will scale back from a planned 7,500 charging points to 1,300 by 2013 and received negative press impressions. Anyway the first charging stations will be operational by this summer and each electric vehicle including that of London Mayor’s Boris Johnson will be on the road immediately. Electric vehicle drivers will have to register their cars and of course to pay a £100 annual fee to use the charging points network, which will be located at partners of the programme, such as Sainsbury’s, Asda, Capital Shopping Centres and some London boroughs.
The network of charging points and electric vehicle registration in London is being managed by Siemens. Each electric vehicle will also be part of Hertz’s rental options in London, as well as part of PwC’s corporate fleet. So, stay sharp if you want an electric vehicle for short journeys.
