As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) rises, charging infrastructure provider Connected Kerb announced on Monday that it wants to construct 190,000 on-street public chargers in the UK by 2030, costing up to 1.9 billion pounds ($2.55 billion) in expenditure.
Around 1,000 public chargers are in use, with 10,000 more on the way, according to the London-based business. According to Connected Kerb’s CEO Chris Pateman-Jones, the company should have signed arrangements for an additional 30,000 chargers by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Long-term contracts lasting 15 to 25 years are used by Connected Kerb, which is financed by significant infrastructure banks and firms like infrastructure investor Equitix. The company also uses UK government subsidies for public chargers for residential use.
By 2030, the United Kingdom has vowed to prohibit the sale of new diesel and gasoline vehicles. According to the UK government, the country would require roughly 400,000 EV charging outlets by that time, but Pateman-Jones believes demand will be significantly greater.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, completely electric car sales in the United Kingdom increased by 88 percent in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same time the previous year.
However, while EV sales are on the rise, a delay in the installation of charging infrastructure is posing a stumbling block. Cities in Europe and the United States that want to phase out combustion engines over the next 15 years must first address the problem of millions of people who park their automobiles on the street.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said earlier this year that it would substantially expand its network of electric vehicle charging points in the United Kingdom, aiming to add 50,000 on-street installations by 2025 through its on-street charging unit ubitricity.