City to receive a share of £17.6m to fund EV charge points

A consortium including Derby City Council has been awarded almost £18 million to install thousands of electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the region.

Five councils, in collaboration with Midlands Connect, have successfully bid for £17.6 million from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund.

Each local authority has been allocated an individual amount from that pot and it is hoped that additional private investment from charge point operators will enable local authorities to achieve their goals.

The funding will equate to approximately 8,000 new charge sockets across the consortium area and is also likely to support approximately 11,138 jobs in the whole electric vehicle charging supply chain.

Councillor Carmel Swan, the city council’s cabinet member for climate change, transport and sustainability, said: “In Derby, we’re working hard to grow the range of transport choices available to our citizens.

“We know that many of Derby’s citizens are already planning to make the switch to electric vehicles over the next few years and we hope to make this as easy as possible for them by enhancing the electric vehicle charging facilities across the city.

“I’m really pleased that we’ve been selected by government to receive this funding, which will not only help us to increase EV charging in the city but achieve our goal to become net zero by 2035.”

Councillor Carolyn Renwick, cabinet member for infrastructure and environment at Derbyshire County Council, which was part of the consortium, said: “This is excellent news and much-welcomed funding to boost our efforts to meet the projected demand for EV charging across the region.”

Analysis by Midlands Connect found the region requires more than 58,000 new public EV charging points by the end of 2030 to meet the needs of the growing EV market, with over two million EVs expected on the region’s roads by the end of the decade.

Maria Machancoses, chief executive of Midlands Connect, said: “It’s great to see government supporting our collaborative approach to delivering EV and this announcement will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, transforming how we travel around our region and beyond.”