An electric charging pilot for vehicles parked on street will soon take place following the Environment PDS Committee on Monday.

This pilot expands upon the existing 42 fast and rapid chargers across Bromley’s roads and in Bromley’s car parks. These charge points have seen increasing use over recent year and now is the time to pilot other charge point options.

It is envisaged that up to 45 charging points will be installed at selected locations across the borough, including the installation of innovative gully charging technology at around 14 locations which could reduce ‘street clutter’ if successful.  The pilot will evaluate the range of different and emerging electric vehicle charging solutions and their performance before a decision is made to expand provision further.

Councillor William Huntington-Thresher, Executive Councillor for Environment said, “There are significant environmental benefits to electric vehicles, notably improving air quality and reducing local emissions compared to conventional vehicles. More of us are already converting to electric vehicles and whilst the time that only electric vehicles will be sold is some way off, we must be prepared with the right charging technology and our trial is a significant step forwards.  Residents who do not have drives face a dilemma as to how to charge their car and this is what our pilot is tackling and helping us understand which technology could work best across the borough.”

Councillor Huntington-Thresher said, “I am particularly excited by the gully charging trial which has the potential to substantially reduce the street clutter.  We have all seen electric charging cables trailing precariously across the pavement and that is something we do not want to see in Bromley.” 

Around three or four supplies of different electric vehicle models will be included in the pilot, working with just over 50 residents who have already agreed to be part of the trial.  The outcome of the trial will help determine the borough’s future electric vehicle charging direction.

The different charging options included in the pilot will be:

  • Bollard chargers, using shared lamp column electricity supplies
  • Retractable chargepoints, using dedicated electricity supplies
  • Compact standalone chargepoints, using dedicated electricity supplies

The different charging options for the trial have been chosen to minimise the installation footprint and therefore the impact on the street scene. They have also been chosen because they offer 3kW to 7kW charging capacity for shared electricity supply chargepoints and 7kW to 22kW charging capacity for dedicated power supply options. This is typically equivalent to a charging time of four to eight hours, dependent on battery size and more suited for longer stay residential parking and related charging behaviour.

It is envisaged the charging points will be installed later this year, in the autumn, with the pilot evaluation beginning shortly after, when enough data is available from the trial.

Ends

For media enquiries, please contact Andrew Rogers, Head of Public Affairs, on 020 8461 7670 or email andrew.rogers@bromley.gov.uk

Published: 22nd March 2022