An £11m electric vehicle plan has been launched, which will see nine cities nationwide accelerating the deployment of plug-in points for the low carbon vehicles.
The Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) joined-cities plan has been created to help support the rollout of a single national network to enable plug-in vehicles to be easily used and recharged anywhere.
ETI will help the cities – Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, London, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Oxford and Sunderland – deploy a cost-effective and compatible network of recharging points.
ETI chief executive David Clarke explained that the plan would enhance the versatility and ease of recharging and determine what it is needed to achieve a self-sustaining mass market.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said he was delighted that the capital is part of the network of cities to speed up the ‘electric revolution’.
‘I want to make it much easier to go electric which is why in London we are planning to roll out 25,000 charging points.’
Cllr Len Gregory, Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for transport, said: ‘The joined-cities plan is a vital piece in the jigsaw that will enable the development of plug-in vehicles as a feasible mode of mass-market transport.’