A new joint venture aims to improve access to electric vehicle (EV) charging points in urban areas across the UK.
It comes after research showed that more than 40% of urban vehicle owners don’t have access to a driveway they could use to charge an EV — a factor that is likely to hold back the transition to zero emission vehicles.
Liberty Charge, a partnership between Liberty Global Ventures and Zouk Capital, will focus on providing the under-the-pavement power and communications infrastructure necessary for on-street residential charging points.
The 50:50 joint venture will leverage Virgin Media’s connectivity network, infrastructure deployment capabilities and relationships with local authorities to offer charge point operators and local authorities ‘plug and play’ on-street charging facilities in large cities and towns where many residents don’t have off-street parking.
Zouk is manager of the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), a 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.
“CIIF’s central objective is to scale open-access, public EV charging networks for the UK consumer and this is exactly what Liberty Charge will achieve for the thousands of car owners who do not have access to off-street parking,” said Massimo Resta, partner at Zouk Capital. “Liberty Global’s infrastructure deployment capabilities and Virgin Media’s extensive connectivity network make it perfectly positioned to rapidly deploy on-street residential charging in UK towns and cities, and we are excited to be partnering with them on this opportunity.”
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Tags: electric vehicle, EV
