UK government pledges £6m on chargepoints for ultra-low emission taxis

The UK government is investing more than £6 million in the deployment of chargepoints to support ultra-low emission taxis across the country.
 
The money will be used to install nearly 300 rapid points and 46 fast ones in 17 local authorities, including Greater Manchester, Brighton & Hove and Leicester.

Rapid chargepoints are typically able to charge an EV to 80% in 30 minutes depending on the model’s battery capacity while fast charging is expected to deliver more than 60 miles of range in 10-30 minutes.

This deployment is expected to benefit more than 800 ultra-low emission black taxis and more than 3,000 ultra-low emission private hire vehicles.

Richard Harrington, automotive minister, says the chargepoints will help point the way for a healthier future as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.

In a separate move, the government has also announced the winners of the UK Hydrogen Transport Programme, phase two. The recipients of £14 million funding to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and refuelling infrastructure projects include:  

              
 
•    Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Initiative: Tees Valley Combined Authority (UK), Materials Processing Institute, Northern Gas Networks (awarded £1,303,500).

•    Hydrogen Mobility Expansion Project II: Element Energy, ITM Power, 1686 Toyota (GB, 1684 Hyundai Motor UK (£3,070,000).

•    Northern Ireland Hydrogen Transport: Viridian Energy Supply, 376 Translink (Ulsterbus), HyEnergy Consultancy (£1,953,937).

•    Riversimple Clean Mobility Fleet: Riversimple Movement, Monmouth County Council (£1,249,670).

•    Towards commercial deployment of FCEV buses and hydrogen refuelling: BOC, 8509 Merseytravel (Liverpool City Region, Aberdeen City Council and Arcola Energy) (£6.419,038).