BT Group has scrapped plans to convert street cabinets into public electric vehicle (EV) chargers after installing just one.
In July 2023, the British telecommunications firm revealed that its digital start-up unit Etc. would ‘conduct technical and commercial pilots’ to convert or upgrade its street cabinets, which typically house telephone and broadband internet equipment, into EV charge points.
The company later unveiled plans to convert ‘up to 60,000’ street cabinets across the UK, hailing the charging solution as a ‘huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside’.
But after just one charger was launched last year, EV newsletter The Fast Charge has reported that BT has dropped plans to install more, although the firm did not say why.
The single charger, in East Lothian, Scotland, will reportedly be removed next month.
A BT Group spokesperson said the pilot scheme had enabled the firm to ‘test and explore a great deal about the challenges that many on-street EV drivers are facing with charging’.
It said one of these challenges related to Wi-Fi connectivity at charge points, so it would now shift its focus to address this.
