City Hall has identified sites on the Transport for London Road Network which will be suitable for a further 100 ultra-rapid charge points.
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The first 25 of these will be put out to tender on 30 November, and 75 more will follow by the end of April next year, with the aim for all 100 to be operational by the end of 2023.
London now has more than 11,000 public charge points, of which 820 are rapid or ultra-rapid. This is a third of the UK’s total and a 170 per cent increase from 2019. London also has the most public rapid charge points by volume and share of any European city.
There is one charge point for every four registered electric vehicles in London compared with the national average of one charge point for every twelve vehicles.
This has only been possible due to the Mayor’s leadership in the sector with his 2019 Electric Vehicle Strategy and now the London EV Infrastructure Delivery Plan setting the capital on course for a cleaner, greener future.
But for this progress to continue it is essential that the right sort of charging points are built at pace to meet the expected requirement of 40,000-60,000 charging points by 2030, with around 10 per cent of these being rapid charge points.
London is on track to meet this target but to facilitate this ambitious goal, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan wants to go further by facilitating space for a 100 new ultra-rapid charge points.
Ultra-rapid charge points can deliver a full charge in 20-30 minutes and are therefore most suitable for high mileage users, such as the emergency services, taxis and private hire vehicles, delivery drivers and local businesses.
The European Association of Electrical Contractors estimate that 200,000 permanent jobs will be created in the electric vehicles sector in Europe, with around 57 per cent of jobs supporting the installation, operation and maintenance of electric vehicle charging points.
More than 4,500 jobs are expected to be created to supporting charging infrastructure in London alone. ■