GPSJ - SPRING 2025 - Flipbook - Page 39
EV & EV CHARGING
GPSJ
Matt Croucher
Redbridge and Newham Councils
and Uber to fund and install
more than 1,000 charge points
across East London. Utilisation
has been very high, and it is
a great example of private
and public industries working
together to serve a public need
and accelerate the EV charging
rollout.
What do the next 昀椀ve years
look like for the EV charging
industry?
After a period of wide-spread
delays in the public sector’s EV
charging rollouts, LEVI funding
has now been allocated and
tenders are out, and we will see
around 100,000 charge points
commissioned this year. Putting
this into context, at the end of
April 2025 the UK had 79,654
public chargers installed which
provided 114,700 sockets**, so
the next couple of years should
see a steep acceleration in
infrastructure deployment.
This year is proving to be a very
signi昀椀cant year for the charge
point industry, with CPOs under
pressure to deliver on what they
promise, and the importance
of 昀椀nancial backing, delivery
capacity and experience coming
to the fore. Drivers will see a
very tangible increase in charge
point infrastructure visibility –
which will be incredibly positive
in persuading them to make the
switch.
If you had two wishes that
would help accelerate the
rollout of EV charging, what
would they be?
Continued funding by
Government to support
recruiting local authority EV
personnel, not only the o昀케cers
directly responsible for the EV
infrastructure itself, but also
across procurement and legal
departments – where at present
you often see delays and back
logs of up to 12 months.
Improved data sharing by
DNOs (distribution network
operators) to better enable
planning and site design. Whilst
things are improving, large areas
of the network still lack good
quality digitised mapping. We
can’t build infrastructure without a
connection to the power grid, and
you see instances where a site is
chosen, commercials are agreed
and then there is a wait of up to
two years for a connection.
driving experience in every way.
The charging experience
is sadly still mixed. Most of
the time things work and are
straight forward, but even if
it is only one occasion in ten
that there is a hiccup, it can
still be very inconvenient and
frustrating. While there is still a
way to go to achieve countrywide convenience, there are lots
of passionate and committed
professionals working on it, and
I have every con昀椀dence that in
the not-too-distant future, we
will have a 昀椀rst-class charging
network. You could say, I believ.
Lastly, what EV do you
drive? And how do you
昀椀nd the public charging
experience?
I have a Cupra Born, which I love.
I’ve had an EV for six years now
and could never imagine going
back; for me it provides a superior
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SPRING 2025
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