Oxford to trial ‘pop-up’ on-street charging points

Oxford City Council and its partners have been awarded £474,000 to become the first city in the world to trial ‘pop-up’ on-street electric vehicle charging points.

The successful bid was made in partnership with Duku and Urban Electric and will see Oxford residents who currently have electric vehicles access to 20 ‘UEone’ retractable pavement bollards which will be installed on streets with on road, off pavement parking.

The project will support the existing Go Ultra Low Oxford on-street residential charging project - a trial being undertaken by Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council to reduce air pollution and further lower Oxford’s carbon emissions. Oxford is one of eight Go Ultra Low Cities, part of a joint government and industry campaign designed to encourage the uptake of electric cars.

The new investment is part of a wide range of Oxford City Council projects, totalling £3.25 million, to help businesses and residents prepare for the Zero Emission Zone, including £500,000 government funding to install 19 electric vehicle charging points for the exclusive use of hackney and private hire taxis, and £1.7 million to upgrade five sightseeing buses to be fully electric, and 78 local buses to become ultra-low emission.

Tom Hayes, board member for Safer, Greener, and Environment, said: “Everything Oxford does to tackle emissions has to be practical if it’s going to be effective. We have set ourselves the big goal of introducing the world’s first zero-emissions zone to clean up our toxic and illegal air. But, we will only achieve that goal if we support and encourage local drivers to replace their older polluting vehicles with cleaner versions. I’m thrilled that the council has secured funding to support the world’s first pop-up electric vehicle charging points trial, and that this sits within our practical approach to cleaning up our dirty air.”

Poppy Welch, Head of the Go Ultra Low campaign, said: “For those homes in the UK without access to off-street parking, innovations like the UEone are a great option to ensure more and more people around the country have access to charging infrastructure. It’s great to see the work that Oxford – one of the government’s Go Ultra low Cities – is doing to enable people without off-street parking to charge at home. We’d encourage other cities to also take ambitious steps to ensure everyone is able to charge at home - the government provides funding for local authorities to help with the costs of the installation of on-street charging points for residential use.”