Twenty new kerbside electric vehicle charging points across Buckinghamshire to go live on Friday 12th July 2019

Kerbside charging point.

Twenty new kerbside electric vehicle charging points across Buckinghamshire will go live on Friday 12th July 2019.

The new charging points have been installed thanks to a successful funding bid by Buckinghamshire County Council to the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).

On Tuesday 9th July 2019 it was announced that over the coming two years, Buckinghamshire will be part of a Government funded pilot to trial innovative ‘wireless’ charging for electric cars.

The 20 traditional charge points have been mounted on lamposts or bollards in six locations across the county. Their installation was made possible thanks to a £35,288 OLEV grant following a six month long trial in Marlow in September 2019.

The charging points have been supplied by Char.gy Ltd, a company launched in 2016 to provide residential electric vehicle charging for people without off street parking. Buckinghamshire County Council expects to commission another phase of kerbside installations early next year if OLEV funding is available.

Meanwhile, the County Council will be working with Char.gy to pilot road mounted induction charging points, which would do away with connection cables. Kerbside induction ‘mats’, flush with the road surface, will be installed at locations yet to be decided to test ‘wireless’ charging with specially adapted electric cars.

Head of Highways at Buckinghamshire County Council, Mark Averill, said the pilot, at a very early stage, would run over two years and test not only the feasibility of road mounted induction mats but also the special adaptation needed to allow electric cars to be charged using this cableless method.

For now, the 20 pay as you go charging points will provide cable-fed top-ups at 33p per kilowatt hour. They have been installed in neighbourhoods with no off-street parking in Winslow, Amersham, Chesham, High Wycombe and Princes Risborough, with six more in Marlow.

The addition of these charging points brings to 59 the total number of public points across the county. They will all appear on the online interactive map hosted by www.zapmap.comhttp://www.zapmap.com.

Mark Shaw, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport at Buckinghamshire County Council, said Buckinghamshire needed to lead in making it easier for owners of electric cars to charge their vehicles on the street, particularly those with no access to a driveway or garage.

‘These innovative projects move us forward a huge step in encouraging electric car use in Buckinghamshire,‘ said Mark. ‘We’re beginning to break the chicken and egg argument that says society can’t expect more electric car users until there are more charging points, and we can’t afford to provide more charging points until there are more electric cars on the road.‘

Installation, costing £47,050, included £11,762 from the County’s Capital Programme fund. All 20 charging points were installed by Friday 21st June 2019 and, after testing, they will go live from Friday 12th July 2019.

The charging points are located at :

• Amersham : 3 in High Street.
• Chesham : 4 in Mount Nugent, Little Hivings and Hivings Hill.
• High Wycombe : 2 in Grainger Court, Olympic Way.
• Marlow : 9 in Marefield Road, Foxes Piece, Station Rise, The Causeway, Oxford Road and Station Road.
• Princes Risborough : 1 in Southfield Road.
• Winslow : 1 in Burley Road.