Benefits of using an electric vehicle
Electric cars produce no exhaust emissions. By driving an electric vehicle (EV) rather than a petrol or diesel vehicle, you can help reduce emission levels and air pollution in your local area.
EVs also have no tailpipe emissions of CO2 or other air pollutants which are bad for your health. The Energy Saving Trust website is a useful source for more information.
There is no vehicle excise duty to pay on EVs until April 2025 and running costs are lower than petrol and diesel vehicles.
Increasing demand for electric vehicles
According to Department for Transport figures there are currently 2,900 battery electric vehicles registered in Brighton & Hove
Independent forecasts of EV uptake have been made by UK Power Networks and the central government which both indicate that by 2028 this could increase to up to 27,000 electric vehicles registered in Brighton & Hove.
How we’re meeting demand
As well as residential charging, the city will also need to cater for increasing numbers of visitors requiring public charging as part of their stay.
According to an independent analysis by ComparetheMarket, Brighton & Hove is one of the best-prepared areas for EV uptake in the UK based on the number of chargepoints per resident. More than 3,500 chargepoints will be needed to meet demand.
Our focus has been to put chargepoints in locations where there is a high density of households with no access to off-street parking and where there has been demand for a chargepoint from those residents.
We also needed to follow this process for the funding we had at the time.
With the awarded LEVI funding, we will be able to broaden the criteria with our next installation (Phase 2).
We must still focus on residents who do not have off-street parking, but we will be making sure that chargepoints are evenly distributed across the city.
The number of publicly installed chargepoints will increase to over 2,000 and we will be looking to the commercial sector to increase this further.