The city of Oxford, England, was recently chosen as one of winning cities of the UK’s Go Ultra Low City funding scheme, and will therefore be working to actualize its submitted plans to greatly expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the city, according to recent reports.
The plans that the city submitted as part of the determination round of the funding scheme call for the installation of numerous on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging points — as a means of making EV ownership “feasible for an additional 16,000 households by 2018.”
That is a realistic goal considering the level of funding set to be provided by the fund — £800,000. While the funding pot being divvied up by winning cities totals £40 million, the vast majority of this is set to go to larger cities — London, Nottingham, Bristol, and Milton Keynes.
Oxford Student provides more:
The biggest cut of money has been awarded to the cities of London, Bristol, Nottingham, and Milton Keynes. Whereas Bristol and Milton Keynes, for instance, won the bid with offering traffic priorities to ULEVs or short-term vehicle loans respectively, Oxford is set to launch one of the biggest pilots of on-street charging stations that the country has seen to date. Trials will begin at the end of 2016.
…For that purpose, 30 chargers from more than 5 different companies will be trialled at the end of the year. Councillor Ian Hudspeth, leader of the Oxfordshire County Council, praised the project saying that it “will put Oxfordshire at the forefront of innovative low carbon transport solutions and will help stimulate economic growth in the electric vehicle sector.”
John Tanner, Councillor and Executive Board Member for Climate Change, commented: “Electric cars are the future and this extra Government cash will help Oxford residents switch on to cheaper fuel, clean-air and low carbon. I’m thrilled that Oxford will be leading the way to more electric and hybrid vehicles. We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone driving in Oxford to turn on to renewable energy.”
This is badly needed, I travel from Scotland where I have a good choice of chargers to visit a friend working for the university. Fortunately I have an i3 Rex as charging in the villages around where she lives is impossible.