A multi-agency drive is underway across the county to ensure a smooth transition to electric vehicle (EV) use through the roll-out of sufficient charging points.
Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce have flagged up the urgency of the issue and asked a number of local authorities to “future proof” the EV infrastructure in the face of increased future demand.
Midlands Connect, the sub-national transport body, is developing a partnership bid for more central funding for chargepoints.
Meanwhile Staffordshire County Council, having published its Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy earlier this year setting out its support for district councils on the issue, is pledging to work with and partner local authorities and the private sector going forward.
Local councils have been issued with EV Charging Action Plans.
There has been an almost three-fold increase in EV ownership since 2019, with Staffordshire now having 7,733 electric vehicles on the road and Stoke-on-Trent having 1,273. The region as a whole now has a total of 350 chargepoints with 163 of them being rapid/ ultra rapid chargers.
Stoke-on-Trent has seen 100 per cent increase in rapid chargers since 2020 going from 10 to 20, with a total of 46 chargepoints across the city.
This year Midlands Connect has reached out to all local transport authorities to work together on a regional EV Full Business Case Strategy across the region to support and replicate the work undertaken as part of the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) bid that recently won almost £1 million in grant money to fund new chargepoints for several local authorities including Stoke-on-Trent.
Key aims include helping those who do not have access to off-street parking and may struggle to charge their vehicles otherwise, and decarbonising rural transport.
“Midlands Connect understands the importance of EV Infrastructure to businesses and we are addressing it as part of our major strategic work, rural mobility strategy, our decarbonisation toolkit and EV Full Business Case Strategy work,” said Bharat Pathania, Technical Innovation Lead at Midlands Connect.
“We will bring partners together as part of the Centre of Excellence programme to share the work we are developing, from LEVI programme supporting on street charging, to the future EV Infrastructure outside of funding, and how we work with partners to understand the challenges and opportunities. We cannot do this alone or in isolation.
“We are hosting our annual EV conference in Autumn 2023 and kick starting our local authority EV Task and Finish Group to build our regional business case year on year.”
Midlands Connect is working with Government to establish where destination and en-route charging points are being planned, and also where private EV infrastructure is planned across the region.
