Oxford City Council, with support from the County Council, announced the launching of the Go Ultra Low Oxford (GULO) program, aiming to install 100 electric vehicle charging stations in the city’s residential streets to help people go electric.
The project has been made possible after the City Council and County Council secured an £800,000 grant from the UK Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The Government set up the £40m Go Ultra Low Cities scheme to encourage thousands of people to consider switching to an electric car.
The program will see six different charging technologies installed – ranging from cable gullies to retrofitting lamp posts with charging stations – with the aim of finding the best solutions for Oxford residents.
Currently, residents who own electric vehicles and have on-street parking in Oxford’s narrow terraced streets struggle to charge their cars.
The first phase of the project will see 30 EV charging stations installed. Ten of these will be available for the general public, 10 for Co-wheels Car Club vehicles, and the remaining for individual households.
Installation of the charging stations has begun last month and they will be ready for residents and the general public to use in October 2017. The trial will last for 12 months.
The best solutions from the trial will then be rolled out in approximately 100 sites across Oxford’s residential streets. This is expected to happen in 2018.
The network of public chargers will be managed by NewMotion, a Dutch company that brings a wealth of experience from the Netherlands to support the project.
People who wish to use the public chargers can apply to NewMotion for a free charge card and download the NewMotion app for real-time information on where chargers are available.
Renewable energy company Good Energy will provide power to the public chargers from its network of solar, hydro, wind and biofuel generators. This means electric vehicles using the public charging points will be run entirely on renewable energy.
Private chargers will be run from the residents’ own energy supply.
