Charging of electric vehicles (EVs) in Brighton & Hove is rising.
That’s what councillors will be told when they meet to discuss expanding the city’s EV infrastructure next week (Tuesday 17 January).
Members of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee will be given an update of usage and be asked to approve recommendations designed to increase the number of charge points.
This would involve taking steps to procure and award a new concession contract, subdivided into three lots, for the supply, installation, maintenance and operation of electric vehicle charge points for a term of ten years.
The facts and figures of EV charging in Brighton & Hove
Independent analysis has shown the city is one of the best prepared areas in the country for EV uptake and that more than three quarters of residents without off street parking now live within a 5 minute walk of an EV charging point.
In 2019 we awarded a five year contract to EB Charging (soon to be renamed Blink Charging) Since then more than 350 public charging points have been installed.
In 2022, we passed the milestone of having delivered over one million kilowatt hours of electricity to vehicles.
Usage of these points has more than doubled over the past year.
According to figures from the Department for Transport, there are more than 2000 electric vehicles registered in Brighton & Hove, with that number possibly reaching 27,000 by 2028.
If approved, the measures set out in the report would, at a minimum,
- Triple the number of lamppost chargers (approx. 12 hours for a full charge) from 300 to 900
- Increase the number of fast chargers (approx. 6 hours for a full charge) from 100 to over 300
- Increase the number of rapid chargers (approx. 1 hour for a full charge) from 6 to 100
This would increase the city’s current weekly charging capacity on our public network from 4,000 to 32,000 vehicles.
Councillor Steve Davis, Co-Chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee said: “We’re already one of the best cities in the UK for charging electric and hybrid vehicles and we’re seeing a massive increase in usage of our public charging points.
“For those that need to drive, the future is electric and the number of EV vehicles on the road is rising. We’ve made excellent progress so far but we need to do more which is why I’m pleased to see the recommendations for expansion in this report.”
