Surrey County Council partners with Connected Kerb

Connected Kerb and Surrey County Council have partnered on the mass roll-out of EV charge points across the local authority area.

The deal, which aims to assist in the 10,000 EV charge points planned in Surrey by 2030, includes installations at more than 1,500 locations across streets and public car parks in Surrey.

The contract will see £60m of investment from Connected Kerb to install public EV charging points both on-street and in public car parks. At present, there is only one charger per 9,000 residents in Surrey, and the partnership expects to deliver more than 5,000 fast charging points by 2027 – including more than 500 rapid charging points across the county.

The rollout in Surrey will consist of Connected Kerb’s entire product range, including 7kW and 22kW Gecko chargers and Chameleon chargers – catering to those with accessibility needs – for on-street and car parks. In addition to charge points, it will also deliver the firm’s social value projects, including working with local educational centres to provide industry support to pupils interested in learning about EV charge points, providing employability support to vulnerable young people, as well as supporting a number of charities within the county.

The partnership’s ambition is to make one in five of the EV charging bays accessible to drivers with disabilities, in recognition of the need to make EV adoption a practical reality for the 2.35m blue badge holders on UK roads.

News of the partnership comes as the firm publishes its annual report, ‘Sustainable Mobility For Everyone, which outlines how its total network has grown to 1700 public charging points at over 550 locations across the UK. 

“Driving force”

Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, said: “If one local authority can deliver such a significant boost to the UK’s charging network, just imagine what we could achieve by 2030 if every city, county, and combined authority was empowered to do the same. The recent Net Zero Review was clear – local authorities can become the driving force behind the rollout of charging infrastructure across the country, and our partnership with Surrey County Council is case and point.

“If local authorities are the door to a clean transport future, then charging networks like Connected Kerb are the key, providing the tools and expertise needed to unlock the transition at the pace and scale required to reach net zero. Although the Government’s estimate of 300,000 chargers by 2030 may feel ambitious, it’s eminently possible – and necessary – to achieve; this deal proves it.”

Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Growth, Surrey County Council, said: “High-quality, reliable, and accessible charging infrastructure is critical to accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles across the county and serving the needs of all our local communities. Surrey County Council has a commitment to be a carbon net zero county by 2050, and a large part of us achieving that come from supporting residents to make the switch to electric vehicles.

“Over the last two years, we’ve installed over 100 EV charge points in Surrey, and this has given us the opportunity to trial different suppliers and processes. We have an established relationship with Connected Kerb and this contract will enable us to expand our network of charge points and speed up the installation process, to provide services to our residents faster.”

“Another step”

Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP, Minister of State for Decarbonisation and Technology, Department for Transport, said: “Today’s announcement marks another step in the growth of our public charge point network, enabling more and more motorists to make the switch to electric vehicles. 

“The UK is seeing hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment in EV charging across the country, with valuable support from the Government, and it’s great to see innovative British companies like Connected Kerb working with local authorities to deliver ambitious projects such as this one”.

Image courtesy of Connected Kerb

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