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Ovo and Ubitricity to create 50 lamp post EV charging points in Kensington and Chelsea

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Kensington and Chelsea Council, Ovo and Ubitricity have signed a deal to allow more residents to charge their electric vehicles by plugging directly into Council lamp posts. The agreement will fast-track the installation of an extra 50 of Ubitricity’s electric vehicle charging points, SimpleSockets, which draw energy from street lamps across the Borough.

The technology was trialled by the council earlier this year and is now being expanded to further increase Ubitricity’s electric vehicle charging capacity across central London. The project will result in the largest charging network of its kind in central London.

Research by Ovo found that 50 per cent of Londoners are put off buying an electric vehicle due to a lack of charging facilities. SimpleSockets will be  located next to pay and display parking bays and available for use twenty-four hours a day for £0.165 per kwh of electricity.

Councillor Gerard Hargreaves, Kensington and Chelsea Council lead member for transport, said: “Most residents do not have access to off-street parking to charge an electric vehicle. Retro-fitting street lamps with charging technology allows drivers to conveniently charge their vehicles closer to home, while helping to tackle air pollution in London. Lamp post charging is also more cost-effective and much less obtrusive as the charging points require no additional street furniture.”

Tom Pakenham, head of electric vehicles, OVO said: “We want to remove barriers to electric vehicle adoption by providing innovative, simple and widely available urban charging solutions at a cost well below that of running a traditional car, and by giving people more control over their total energy usage. That’s also why we’ve aligned ourselves with the government’s Clean Growth Strategy, and will introduce a V2G (vehicle to grid) charger in 2018 that will enable drivers to sell energy to the grid from their electric vehicles – ultimately generating their own clean power.”
Ubitricity founder Knut Hechtfischer said: “We’re proud to be delivering on this industry first, partnering with Ovo to deliver more smart charging locations across London and provide more freedom for electric vehicle drivers. Ubitricity’s smart charging solution allows customers to use their energy supplier when charging, rather than billing being decided by the charge point. This puts customers in the drivers’ seat when choosing where their electricity comes from, including a hundred per cent renewable sources.”
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