Liberty Charge starts EV infrastructure rollout in London

Liberty Charge, the joint venture created by Liberty Global and Zouk Capital, is rolling out 20 public electric vehicle (EV) charging points across 10 sites in the London borough of Waltham Forest.

The number of charging sites will increase to 50 as future locations are determined and a spokesperson for the company confirmed there are plans for 800 points in total across London.

The announcement follows a report from Policy Exchange in February 2021, which found that the UK needs to install five times as many EV charging points to meet its climate goals.

Waltham Forest is the first installation in a national programme being rolled out by Liberty Charge.

More areas for deployment will be confirmed during the course of this year as Liberty Charge continues discussions with local authorities throughout the UK to maximise on-street electric vehicle charging opportunities for residents.

The joint venture, which was set up last May, leverages Liberty Global UK subsidiary, Virgin Media’s network infrastructure, deployment capabilities and relationships with local authorities

Zouk is the manager of the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), the dedicated fund established by the UK government in 2019 and backed by HM Treasury to help develop public charging infrastructure points for electric vehicles throughout the UK.

Neil Isaacson, Liberty Charge chief executive, says: “Recent research has highlighted the need to do much more to meet the rising consumer demand for EV charging if the UK government’s carbon neutral targets are to be met.

“There are many challenges on the road to net zero and at Liberty Charge we’re doing everything we can to ensure that charging infrastructure is not a limiting factor

“We look forward to partnering with other local authorities to give residents more opportunities to charge their EV on the street.”

The charging points will be operated by EV DOT, a publicly accessible EV charging network owned and operated by BMM Networks.

The charge points provide access to a charging capacity of up to 22 kW and cost EV drivers 30p per kWh to charge.