If you own or have looked into purchasing an electric vehicle (EV) you are well aware of the expenses that are associated with purchasing your electric vehicle and charging point. You may even be aware of the various government grants for home and workplace charging that aim to reduce costs and encourage the uptake of EV’s. Let’s take a look a Northern PowerGrid’s new tool.
This new technology aims to help businesses electrify their fleets, Northern PowerGrid’s ‘Auto Design’ gathers data about the local electrical system and assess the different places a business can install charging points to maximise effectiveness and limit cost (to the organisation). Currently, this tool is only available in North East England, Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire focusing on saving businesses in the identified areas money and time when introducing electric vehicles. It is predicted that 4.5 million EV’s will be on the roads in these areas by 2040. The tool is helping to accelerate the UK’s plans to hit net zero by 2050.
Taking a look at residential schemes, January 2020 saw the department of transportation inject a further £5 million into the installation of EV charging points bringing the total investment to £10 million. The funding will be used to install over 3,000 on-street parking charge points across the UK. This plan aims to encourage residents with no access to off-street parking to switch to an electric vehicle as charging stations become more readily available. The increase of public charging points with increase the UK’s renewable energy standing across Europe. To date, the UK makes up for 24,000 of the 190,000 chargers installed across Europe, making the UK fourth in terms of available chargers behind France, Germany and the Netherlands.
If you’re interested in purchasing an EV or are already the proud owner of an electric vehicle, it is likely that you can expect to see more and more money-saving schemes appearing for residential and commercial sectors. This could come as a response to the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson moving the petrol and diesel ban forwarded to 2035. This will ban the sales of petrol, diesel and hybrid transport to meet net-zero plans meaning you can expect to see more electric vehicles on the roads in the future.
Read more about government grants & the chargers UCS install here: EV Charging
