If you've got an Electric Vehicle (EV) or you are thinking about getting an EV, then this is for you!
Essex County Council are consulting on their public EV charging points strategy. In our District there are a number of public charging points in council car parks which are in town centre locations which might not always be convienient for charging. I'd really like to see our leisure centres have EV charging points and also areas such as Hockley Woods and Cherry Orchard Park have EV charging points.
In Essex, around half of CO2 emissions are from transport. Responding to the climate crisis, Essex County Council has committed to reducing the county's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, in line with UK statutory commitments. Alongside this, the Government is phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2035 to accelerate the transition towards all new vehicles being zero emission.
Switching to electric vehicles (EV) will help contribute to the net zero goal and improve air quality, but to make this a reality and aid EV growth in the county, people need access to a reliable, convenient, accessible, and fairly priced network of EV charge points.
The Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy aims to support this by setting out how Essex County Council will work with local authority partners and the private sector to enable the delivery of changing points in key locations to maximise use – delivering the “The Right Charger in the Right Place”.
Key stats -
· There is potential for 50,000 EVs in Essex by 2025, rising to 220,000 by 2030
· There are currently 300 registered public charge points in the county. It is predicted we will need a minimum of 1,500 by 2025, rising to 6,000 by 2030
· The projected increase in uptake of EVs could reduce car and van CO2 emissions in Essex by around 70% by 2040.
Public consultation
The consultation is open until Sunday 30 July 2023. The quickest and easiest way for people to tell us what they think is by completing our short online consultation survey.
More information about the proposals can be found in our public consultation brochure, which is available via the online survey page or our webpage at: www.essexhighways.org/ev-strategy.
