West Northamptonshire appoints char.gy for 3,000-socket on-street EV rollout

West Northamptonshire Council has selected char.gy to deliver more than 3,000 on-street EV charging sockets.

The programme is backed by £2.85 million of Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding and what the council describes as ‘substantial’ private investment. A large proportion of the sockets will be installed in existing lamp columns, targeting residential streets where drivers do not have access to private parking or a domestic charger.

It becomes the latest council to promise bold expansion plans for its EV charging network. In recent months, Hampshire County Council and four councils across the Midlands have announced equally large EV charging rollout plans. Like West Northamptonshire Council, much of the money for those plans comes from Government funding, rather than putting pressure on local budgets. 

For West Northamptonshire Council, it says that the proposed locations for the new chargers have been assessed using existing and forecasted EV ownership, local travel patterns, population density, highway suitability and electricity grid capacity. Resident requests and discussions with parish councils are also being used to shape the rollout.

That’s an approach that many campaigners have been calling for, with ADEPT calling for councils to think more long-term when it came to the deployment of EV charging. It also delivers the kind of chargers that many households will rely on near to their homes – slower, destination chargers. 

While it’s all well and good that many charge point operators are installing more rapid chargers, those parking near their homes won’t want to be forced to move their cars after a few hours of charging. Of course, they could stop on the way home and get a quick top-up charge – but there’s nothing better than having a charger near home that you can mostly forget about. 

With that in mind, West Northamptonshire says most of the network installed by Char.gy will use standard chargers rated between 7kW and 22kW, with lamp-column units forming the majority. The council argues that this mix will help manage local electricity demand while providing charging suited to longer residential stays.

The installation of the chargers is expected to begin during the summer period, and should be relatively simple as using existing infrastructure would allow the programme to “scale up quickly,” according to Cllr Nigel Stansfield, West Northamptonshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Waste. 

It comes at an important time for the EV charging market in the UK. Recent figures suggest that the rollout has been slowing across the UK in recent months, with private investors now reassessing their priorities – with ultra-rapid charging hubs continuing to grow rapidly, while slower chargers that deliver less opportunity for profit have suffered as a result. If local councils can help drive growth forward, those without driveways should hopefully benefit.