- BT planned to retrofit green street cabinets into renewable-powered EV chargers
BT has ditched plans to install tens of thousands of on-street electric car chargers after installing a single device.
The telecoms giant made headlines last year when its start-up and digital unit, Etc. announced plans to accelerate the rollout of EV charging infrastructure by transforming old green street cabinets into electric car charging units.
However, BT has now announced it has ended the pilot scheme after just 12 months, despite earmarking around 60,000 cabinets for conversion.
The one charger BT did install, located in East Lothian, will be decommissioned on 14 February.
BT is instead turning its attention to improving wi-fi connectivity for EV drivers, EV charging industry newsletter Fast Charge revealed.
A BT spokesman said: ‘By adopting a pilot process, we have been able to test and explore a great deal about the challenges that many on-street EV drivers are facing with charging and where BT Group can add most value to the UK EV ecosystem.’
BT has now announced it has ended its EV charger pilot scheme after just 12 months, despite earmarking around 60,000 green street cabinets for conversion
In January 2024 BT embarked on its pilot scheme to ‘extend usefulness of near end-of-life green street cabinets as EV charge points’ by repurposing the existing street furniture.
Each green cabinet, set to be retired due to the roll-out of fibre internet, was to be fitted with two charging points. The chargepoints would be powered by renewable energy and the chargers would use the existing broadband service in the cabinets.
At the time of announcing the scheme, almost two-thirds of people told BT that EV charging infrastructure was inadequate, and BT proposed its plan as a way to tackle the national shortfall in EV charging infrastructure.
There were even suggestions the number of green cabinets that could be converted could rise to 90,000.
The single charger BT did install, located in East Lothian, will be decommissioned on 14 February
With a third of UK homes not having access to off-street parking, on-street charging is seen as crucial for the uptake of electric vehicles.
In January 2024 Tom Guy, managing director, Etc. at BT Group said: ‘Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing.’
Government EV charging point targets
The latest report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that chargepoint numbers have increased in line with what is needed to hit 2030 targets.
By the end of the decade the UK needs a minimum of 300,000 chargepoints – something the NAO says is ‘achievable’.
Chargepoint installation is seen as a key way to deliver the Government’s EV targets, which includes the 2030 ban on all new petrol and diesel cars, and all new cars and vans sold being zero-emission from 2035.
Although the numbers are currently on schedule, the NAO has warned that there’s ‘more to do to ensure adequate coverage in all parts of the country’ and that it’s more expensive than it needs to be to install chargers due to planning permission and electricity grid connections.
Where are chargers located in the UK?
By the end of the decade the UK needs a minimum of 300,000 chargepoints – something the National Audit Office says is ‘achievable’ and the UK is on track for
While chargepoint rollout is on target, even regional chargepoint distribution is lagging behind.
Currently 44 per cent of all public chargepoints in the UK are in London and the South-East.
Only 15 per cent of chargepoints in England are in rural areas.
A study last year by Field Dynamics found that more than three-quarters of households that park their cars on the street do not have a public charger for electric vehicles within a five-minute walk.
It’s study found that in Redditch, West Midlands, only 3.2 per cent of on-street households are covered, compared to Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea where 99 per cent of households have a public charger within a five-minute walk.
The DfT has designed its current programmes to help address regional differences but there aren’t specific targets for how public chargepoints should be distributed across different regions and across urban and rural areas.
So, the 3000,000 target could be met without achieving the spread of chargepoints needed to support road transport across the whole country.
