20 March 2016
The use of electric vehicle charging points in St Albans has quadrupled in a year - the third year in a row of rapid growth.
There are currently four council-run charging points with dedicated bays in St Albans. There are also two bays at the city station. The council charging points were installed in partnership with charging network Evalu8.
Local councillor Simon Grover has obtained figures from Evalu8, that show the charging points were used 1,329 times last year, delivering 8,414 kWh of electricity.
Councillor Grover said, "8,000 kWh is equivalent to about 15,000 miles of driving an ordinary petrol car around town. So these electric vehicles are really starting to make a difference. Air pollution is an increasingly serious problem in St Albans, and electric vehicles are definitely part of the solution."
The figures are more than four times the previous year's total of 1,944 kWh, which was more than three times up on the year before that. The network opened in 2012, when it delivered just 100 kWh of electricity. That's about the energy a freezer uses in a month.
Councillor Grover called for more charging points to be installed. "People will only buy electric cars, and bring them to St Albans, only if we have lots of charging points. Now we know the uptake is rising so fast, it's vital that we install more charging points around the city and the district."
Privacy: The local party and Cllr Simon Grover are both registered with the Information Commissioner's Office
