There are now over 1 million fully electric vehicles (EVs) on Britain’s roads as government works towards 100% of new cars sold in Great Britain, to be zero emission by 2035. I’ve certainly noticed more and more EVs on the road as I’ve travelled around Suffolk.
Now I fully appreciate that, currently, an EV might not be for everyone. And I’m not going to use this column to try and convert you or convince you about the benefits, or otherwise, of EVs.
However, I do want to share what Suffolk County Council is doing to help improve the county’s charging infrastructure, to support existing EV drivers, attract new ones, and help make some aspects of EV ownership more accessible to you.
I’ll be honest, when driving an EV I have had frustrations, albeit rare, about the availability and reliability of public charging around the country, when I’ve needed a top-up. But, on the whole, it has been a convenient and simple experience.
We understand that Suffolk needs a much wider and varied charging network – a mixture of on-street charging, community charging hubs and charging stations. We know this as we commissioned the ‘EV:Ready Report’ on behalf of all local authorities in Suffolk. It suggests a need for 2,000 standard chargers and 40 to 60 rapid charging stations in Suffolk by 2030, to meet the demand.
Now the county council isn’t solely responsible for Suffolk’s charging network. Town, parish, borough and district councils are contributing, as well as private enterprises, supermarkets, car parks and other businesses.
But we do have a significant role to play, which is why we recently secured £7.3 million from the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund to boost the EV charging network in Suffolk.
We’ll be using this money to significantly expand the number of kerbside charging points, community charging hubs, car park charging points, and improve existing fast and rapid charging point infrastructure.
This is where you can help. We want you to nominate locations where you would like to see on-street charging, to help make your experience better, or help make that move easier from a petrol or diesel car. We can’t guarantee that every suggestion will have a charge point installed, but it will give us a great idea of where the demand is.
You can make your nomination at www.suffolk.gov.uk/pluginsuffolk
You’ll also be able to meet colleagues at various events around the county in the coming months to find out more. We’ll be visiting libraries around the county – just this week in Haverhill (9 April) and Felixstowe (10 April), with more dates to be announced. We’ll also be at this year’s Suffolk Show (29 and 30 May).
All this EV work isn’t to say that electrification is going to solve our challenges around a changing climate, or be the solution to more sustainable travel. We of course promote walking, cycling and using public transport where possible. But there will still be vehicles on our roads, and we want to help where we can, to make them EVs. It is an important culture to embrace, as it positively impacts so much from climate change, to our health, to our local tourism economy. We have an ambition to protect and enhance our environment, and EVs play their part in that.
We have also been changing our ways in-house at the council. Earlier this year, our pool car fleet became entirely electric. Staff are always encouraged to consider if car journeys are necessary, but where they are (for example for our social care workers) then all journeys are now made with zero emissions.
I’m also excited to be opening EVEX24 on 11 April - an ‘Electric Vehicle Experience Day’ which is returning to Trinity Park in Ipswich, and sponsored by Suffolk County Council. Organised by EV Driver, this has been an extremely popular event for members of the public and local businesses to understand more about EVs, meet suppliers and most excitingly, get behind the wheel of dozens of EVs. Tickets have been selling fast, but are still available from www.evdriver.co.uk
