Ubitricity to roll out 560 lamppost chargepoints across Birmingham

Birmingham City Council has teamed up with charge point operator ubitricity to roll out 560 lamppost chargepoints across residential areas of Birmingham, targetting locations where residents have limited access to off-street parking.

Installing EV charge points in existing lampposts makes use of existing local electrical infrastructure, meaning it is cost-effective and quick to install. However the approach can only support slow chargers, typically of not more than 7kW.

The scheme, which is the first of its kind in Birmingham, is being funded by the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles’ (OZEV’s) On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) funding pool. So far, 300 chargepoints have been installed, with the remaining 260 set to be installed by the end of spring.

The chargepoints will be supplied, installed, owned, operated and maintained by ubitricity, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell and one of the UK’s largest chargepoint operators.

Councillor Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment and transport at Birmingham City Council said, “While our focus as a council is on delivering the Birmingham Transport Plan and encouraging people to swap private vehicles for public transport, we also want to ensure that, for those who require use of a car, we have the infrastructure in place to facilitate use of low or zero-emission vehicles.”

Stuart Wilson, UK managing director of ubitricity, said the company is delighted to be supporting Birmingham City Council “to create one of the largest public EV charging networks outside London, encouraging the transition to electric vehicles, and helping to create a cleaner and healthier, environment for the people of Birmingham.”