Electric vehicle owners in Surrey will soon have access to 10,000 public EV chargers as the county council announces the largest deployment of charge points by a UK local authority.

Surrey County Council and the EV infrastructure provider Connected Kerb are today beginning the installation of new charge points at over 1,500 locations across streets and public car parks in the county.

Currently, there is one charger per 9,000 residents in Surrey. However, the £60m contract aims to deliver over 5,000 fast charging points by 2027, including over 500 rapid charging points.

‘High-quality, reliable, and accessible charging infrastructure is critical to accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles across the county and serving the needs of all our local communities,’ said Matt Furniss, cabinet member for Transport, Infrastructure and Growth, Surrey County Council.

‘Surrey County Council has a commitment to be a carbon net zero county by 2050, and a large part of us achieving that come from supporting residents to make the switch to electric vehicles.’

Jesse Norman MP, minister of state for Decarbonisation and Technology, Department for Transport, said: ‘Today’s announcement marks another step in the growth of our public charge point network, enabling more and more motorists to make the switch to electric vehicles.

‘The UK is seeing hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment in EV charging across the country, with valuable support from the Government, and it’s great to see innovative British companies like Connected Kerb working with local authorities to deliver ambitious projects such as this one.’

This article was originally published by LAPV.