1. What is the council’s long-term electric vehicle (EV) strategy?
This information is already publicly available on our EV Charging Strategy for consultation webpage.
2. How many ev charging points have the council installed?
Devon County Council (DCC) have been delivering electric vehicle chargepoints in car parks through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) part funded “DELETTI” project. The project has awarded contracts for chargepoints at approximately 100 car parks across Devon, Torbay, and South Somerset. 65 of the car parks are in Devon (excluding Torbay), typically installing a single dual socket chargepoint per site. Approximately 25 of these will be “rapid” chargepoints and the remainder 22kw “fast” chargepoints. “Passive provision” in the form of the grid connection has also been installed to allow the suppliers to increase the number of chargepoints at each site if there is sufficient demand. Contracts were awarded in 2021/22 and sites started to be installed in 2022/23 and will continue to 2023/24. The number of sites delivered is below.
Financial Year (FY) 22/23: 22 chargepoints
The private sector led and funded “Rapid Charging Devon” project is also installing chargepoints across Devon on-street and in car parks. Delivery is ongoing with around 10-15 on-street currently live and more to follow this financial year.
3. How many do the council plan to install over the next 12 months and financial year 2023/24?
43 chargepoints.
4. Will the council tender for charging points in point 3? If Yes, when? and which framework. And what funding will be available?
The FY23/24 chargepoints have already been tendered. DCC have been provisionally allocated £7m funding for electric vehicle chargepoints by central government and we expect to tender for these in due course, most likely in FY24/25.
5. Are you receiving grant funding for electric vehicle infrastructure from the central government?
No. The existing chargepoints are being delivered largely through private sector funding, with £250,000 of public sector funding allocated from a mix of sources including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding and local match funding from DCC and the participating Devon districts. Not all of the public sector allocation has been used as the private sector was able to fund the majority of the costs.
DCC submitted a successful ORCS application in 2021. DCC’s procurement for the ORCS charegpoints sought to maximise best value for the public sector and leverage private sector funding. The successful tender is fully funding the installation of the chargepoints and so no ORCS funding was required.
DCC have been provisionally allocated £7m funding for electric vehicle chargepoints by central government. All Tier 1 authorities in England are currently going through the application stages and the earliest we can submit a full application for the funding will be November 2023.
6. If yes, please confirm if this is via the On-street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS) or LEVI funding.
N/A
7. How much will the council spend on installing electric vehicle charging points (as GBP and as a percentage of the overall 2023/24/25 budget)?
Please refer to previous answers. Spend is <0.1% of overall DCC budget.
8. Who is in charge of leading the electric vehicle charging projects, their department and contact information?
We consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data). Devon County Council are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018. In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore Section 40(2) is applied.
9. Does the authority allow drilling in lamp columns to accommodate the installation of electric vehicle charging points?
At present there are no plans to install chargepoints in lampposts.
10. What execution issues have been faced in implementing your current EV strategy, if any?
The main issues have included delays/wait times for National Grid providing connections and legal agreements such as leases and wayleaves.
The Rapid Charging Devon project was privately led and funded by InnovateUK and the private sector. As an innovation project it has encountered a number of issues, particularly around the specification of the chargepoint hardware, that has led to some disruption and delay. DCC have been working with the supplier to resolve and learn lessons from the Rapid Charging Devon project for future chargepoint rollout.