SURREY County Council and contractor Connected Kerb have agreed a deal to support the rollout of thousands of electric vehicle chargepoints across the county.

The contract, the largest in the UK to date, will release up to £60million of investment for Connected Kerb to install thousands of public EV chargepoints over the next five years. The company has been licensed to operate the chargepoints for 15 years from installation.

Marisa Heath, the council's cabinet member for environment, said: “We know that emissions from transport are a significant proportion of our carbon footprint in Surrey, so supporting residents to switch to an electric car is essential to helping us achieve our aim of being a net zero county by 2050.

“Many residents don’t have access to driveways to charge EVs at home, so a comprehensive network of high-quality, reliable and accessible EV chargepoints is essential to supporting the needs of our local communities.

“We’ve been working with Connected Kerb for almost a year, as part of our pilot phases that have seen us install more than 100 chargepoints across Surrey over the last two years. We’re delighted this contract will enable us to speed up the roll-out of further chargepoints and expand our network in the coming years.”

The partnership will see a rapid rollout of on-street charge points, with ambitious plans to install hundreds of charge points within the first year. It aims to make one in five of the EV charging bays more accessible to drivers with disabilities.

“The partnership between Surrey County Council and Connected Kerb supports the delivery of ambitious EV charging infrastructure rollouts at the scale and pace needed to meet targets set by the government and to keep pace with rapidly growing EV adoption – up 40% in 2022 compared to 2021,” said a council press officer.

“Throughout the contract, Connected Kerb will be identifying suitable on-street locations, using residents’ suggestions made through our online map, and approaching public sector and community land owners across the county to identify other suitable locations for public EV chargepoints, including local car carks, NHS sites and educational establishments.

“In addition to the EV chargepoints, the contract will deliver significant value to Surrey residents through Connected Kerb’s social value projects. These will cover a range of initiatives including working with local educational centres to provide industry support to pupils interested in learning about EV chargepoints, providing employability support to vulnerable young people, as well as supporting a number of charities within the county.”