THREE more funding bids have been submitted by Coventry City Council for more charging points for electric vehicles.
The city has ambitious targets to help residents and workers have plenty of places to charge electric vehicles as Coventry – and the rest of the country – makes the switch from old, polluting transport to clean, green options to improve air quality for all.
By December Coventry will have over 700 charging points, including rapid 50kw per hour chargers on the main arterial routes, around the city and in the city centre itself.
Coun Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, said: “We have been working quickly to help create the infrastructure for electric vehicles and the impact they can have on the air quality of the city.
“These bids will hopefully secure even more funding to bring us closer to our vision of a clean air city, leading the way in the country, embracing innovation, and giving all residents the means to be able to charge an electric vehicle as near to their homes or places of work as possible.”
If successful, these bids could deliver a further 500 on street residential charging points, rapid chargers, solar panels and battery storage.
Coventry has the second most electric charging points per capita in the country apart from London.
The report seeks approval to make three separate bid submissions to the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) for up to £5.5million from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund and the On Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS).
The council will find out if it has been successful next month.
These schemes are part of the plans to make Coventry a greener, healthier city in which to live and work and to make it easier for local residents to own and charge electric cars.
Around 46 per cent of Coventry households do not have access to private parking, so having on-street charge points for them to use is critical to supporting the transition to electric cars.
Public transport and taxis are also moving towards the cleaner transport with 26 electric taxis already in use in the city and Coventry’s buses moving towards an all-electric fleet by the end of 2025. A first for the whole country.
The first ten electric buses have been running in the city since August 2020, and a further 50 will come into service over the next two months, with more to come later this year as the new buses are delivered.
The city council’s own fleet also includes 70 electric vehicles – 60 per cent are vans. These vehicles are available for local businesses to ‘try before they buy’ with around 100 businesses having taken up the opportunity to date.
