A Council-led rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Oxfordshire is now complete.
Started under the previous Conservative-led administration at Oxfordshire County Council, the Park and Charge Oxfordshire programme was set up to increase the number of public-use EV charging points available in the county as more residents make the switch to electric vehicles.
125 dual-connection electric vehicle chargers are now operating in 20 Council-owned car parks across the county, including five in the Cherwell District. The rollout began in Bicester with the installation of 12 EV bays in Cattle Market car park. 22 bays are operational in Banbury – 10 in Windsor Street car park and 12 in Calthorpe Street West car park and a further 12 have been installed in Curtis Place car park in Kidlington. 16 hubs are now also live in Claremont car park in Bicester marking the completion of the project.
The chargers provide battery top-ups to visitors during the day as well as a safe solution for residents without access to off-street parking to charge their EVs overnight. They are suitable for all makes of electric vehicles with both ‘tethered’ and ‘socketed’ chargers provided in each location.
The £5.4 million project, which is one of the first of its kind in the UK, has been delivered in partnership with Bicester-based Zeta Specialist Lighting Ltd who designed and manufactured the chargers.
Hundreds of thousands of electric miles have already been powered by the chargers and with almost 1 in 5 new cars sold in Oxfordshire in 2021 being electric (the highest EV uptake in the UK) many more thousand will follow.
