Electric ambitions in the South East
Feature
The South East of England is improving its electric vehicle charging infrastructure to encourage residents and businesses to take-up plug-in vehicles.
How is the South East is driving uptake of electric vehicles?
The South East has a unique opportunity to drive electric vehicle take-up in the UK because of its high levels of individual private car ownership compared with the rest of the UK, including a high level of additional car ownership. The vast majority of journeys undertaken, for both business and pleasure, are made by car – even with the relatively good public transport links that the SE enjoys. Furthermore most of these journeys are short range and well within the capability of existing production EVs and therefore convincing people to switch an additional car to an EV can be a very achievable goal.
What is the charging infrastructure currently like?
Charging infrastructure in the southeast is limited but growing. There are already a number of EV charge points in East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove installed over the past few years. Most of these, however, are of the ‘slow’ (or standard) type with a household three pin socket, meaning that a full charge using these units can take up to eight hours.
There are some newer charge points, the ‘fast’ type, which allow for a full charge in four hours, scattered around the South East. These operate on a number of different networks.
The South East already has some rapid charging infrastructure thanks to Ecotricity who have installed rapid chargers at motorway service stations in the region. Their nationwide Electric Highway takes in five service areas on the motorway network in West Sussex, Surrey and Kent.
What is Energise Network?
The Energise Network will be a cornerstone for the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in the South East. Thanks to a wide-ranging web of rapid charge points right across the region and a commitment to connect the entire charging infrastructure in the South East under a single banner, Energise offers drivers a comprehensive network which makes EV ownership a viable option for the first time.
What is the EV South East Network Partnership?
Energise Network had developed from the EV South East Network Partnership – a consortium of local authorities across South East England, supported by a number of private sector companies. Led by the Sussex Air Quality Partnership, EV Southeast was established primarily to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles in the densely populated South East in a bid to improve air quality.
The energise network was created to provide an effective public facing brand for the scheme.
What are the aims of the Partnership?
The principle aim of this partnership is to reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions, a major contributing factor to poor air quality, by encouraging EV take-up which will result in a positive effect on public health.
We have a number of objectives which fall under our overarching goal of: creating the electric vehicle charge network for the South East; making it easier for people and businesses to go electric; linking all SE charging infrastructure for everyone to use; and connecting the SE to the rest of the UK and mainland Europe.
What fleets are using EVs?
University fleets are some of the best for containing electric. Encouragingly for the SE, according to the Times Higher Education, one of the best universities in the country for this, in seventh place, is the University of Kent, in Canterbury, whose vehicle fleet is now more than a quarter (26 per cent) electric.
The University of Sussex at Falmer, Brighton, also scores highly with 20 per cent of its fleet vehicles powered by electricity. A number of local authorities have had Plug-in Fleet Initiative (PiFi) reports prepared for them by low carbon consultancy, the Energy Saving Trust – including Energise project partners Surrey County Council and Chichester District Council – in order to allow them to understand where their own fleets would benefit from replacing diesel vehicles with electric equivalents.
What other companies and local bodies are involved?
Energise Network is led by the Sussex Air Quality Partnership and Lewes District Council. The key top level public partners are the four county councils in the region: East Sussex, Kent, Surrey and West Sussex as well as Brighton & Hove City Council.
We are working with a number of district and borough councils across Kent, Surrey and Sussex also. The private sector partners responsible for installation, maintenance and network management of our rapid chargers are Charge Your Car Limited and Elektromotive Limited and we are working with a number of other private sector partners including Southern Rail.
Does the Energise Network work with Source East plugged in places scheme?
We want to make sure that our network is interoperable with all of those around us and Source East is one network with whom we will need to ensure compatibility. We are not merely an organisation who seeks to protect revenue or market share – our main objective, first and foremost given our public service base, is to encourage people to buy and to drive electric cars to improve the quality of the air that we breathe and the current lack of compatibility between networks and operators is a major barrier to that. Over the coming months and years, eliminating those barriers within the South East, with the wider UK and with mainland Europe is something that we will be enthusiastically pursuing for the benefit of EV drivers.
