The deployment, the first of its kind in the North East of England delivering public EV charging at scale, is part of a 15-year contract between the council and Ubitricity, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell. It will enable residents without private driveways to charge their cars.
The charge points, which take as little as two hours to install, will be deployed from January 2024 in a mixture of existing bollards and lampposts across Linthorpe, Newport, Ayresome and the University area, and will charge at speeds of up to 5kW. Funding for the project has come from the UK Government’s On-Street Residential Charge Point Scheme (ORCS), and Middlesbrough Council will receive a 5% revenue share throughout the lifetime of the contract.
“This initiative will make it much easier for people to charge their electric vehicle in a simple and convenient way, while removing what we know is a significant barrier to people choosing to go electric,” said Peter Gavigan, executive member for environment at Middlesbrough Council. “To make sure people in Middlesbrough have the best access to a charging point, most will be installed on residential streets which either have no parking restrictions, or in those areas where resident parking schemes are in place.”
