Manchester City Council commits to installing 200 EV chargers in the next two years

Manchester City Council has confirmed plans to install 200 EV chargers over the next two years, more than doubling the number of charging points available in the city. 

As of April 2022, there were 155 EV charging points with 300 connectors across the City of Manchester, although that pales in comparison to some other cities across the UK. For example, the City of Westminster boasts more than 2,200 chargepoints – despite having a population half that of Manchester. 

Of course, Manchester City Council isn’t solely responsible for installing EV chargepoints across the city, but it’s doing its part. It says that it will invest over £3 million into the charging points and their installation, with over £1 million coming from the Great Manchester Combined Authority and £2 million from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund. 

The chargers are set to be located in council-owned car parks, libraries and leisure centres, amongst other locations. Manchester City Council says that there are over 40 public areas suitable for electric charging points, and they will be reviewed as part of the installation program. 

Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment, noted, “Dramatically increasing the use of electric vehicles is an important part of reducing the city’s carbon emissions to tackle climate change.

“We want to keep improving public transport and encourage active travel options, such as walking and cycling, for shorter journeys but undoubtedly electric vehicles also have an important part to play.

“While residents lucky enough to have access to off-road parking will be able to install their own home chargers, we know that the 60% of our population who don’t will be reliant on a public charging network to enable them to make the change to cleaner vehicles.”

“We are aiming to help spark the expansion of Manchester’s public electric vehicle charging infrastructure to build capacity and confidence until it becomes viable for commercial operators to take over and become the main suppliers. This initiative will be an important first step.”

In addition to Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester has tasked Be.EV to expand and maintain the city-region's publicly owned EV charging infrastructure. It’s not known if Be.EV will operate the new chargers installed by Manchester City Council, but the company does have a dominant position in the Greater Manchester area – with plans afoot for even greater expansion. 

For example, Be.EV recently received planning permission from Manchester City Council to build the city’s first large-scale green charging hub, dubbed ‘Oasis’. Upon completion, the hub will provide the capacity to ultra-rapid charge up to 16 electric vehicles at once.