London’s electric vehicle revolution takes major step forward

The Mayor’s plans to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe took a significant step forward as Transport for London (TfL) published details of how 1,000 electric vehicles for the Greater London Authority (GLA) fleet and 8,500 charging points, together worth more than £70 million, will be secured.

TfL has placed two notices in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) which will create the UK’s largest procurement frameworks to date for electric vehicles and electric vehicle charge point infrastructure. The agreements will speed up delivery of the Mayor’s plans by creating a shortlist of approved suppliers, making it easier and cheaper for TfL to buy points and vehicles and enabling orders to be placed whilst keeping economical bulk buying prices. The list will be open to other private and public sector bodies to use to help them progress the take up of electric vehicles quickly and for less money.

This framework will enable Transport for London and other interested organisations to purchase electric vehicles and charge points in a more efficient way up to the total value of nearly £72 million. This value would be reached if the 8,500 charging points and 1,000 electric vehicles for London as outlined in procurement notices are bought through the framework. The benefits of adopting a procurement framework rather than tendering for a traditional contract is that the required electric vehicle infrastructure can be delivered far quicker via a range of suppliers.

The new purchasing system forms a crucial part of the Mayor’s drive to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe. The vehicles and charge points bought through the framework will contribute to the delivery of 25,000 electric vehicle charge points and 1,000 GLA electric vehicles by 2015. The new infrastructure and the additional electric vehicles on London roads will help to encourage Londoners to use a more sustainable form of private transport and support the Mayor’s target to cut London’s CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.

There is also an option for other organisations, predominantly UK local authorities, to benefit from the cost efficiencies delivered by the London frameworks. A total of 300 electric vehicles and charging points infrastructure up to a value of £25.4 million can be collectively purchased by other organisations making the frameworks worth nearly £100 million, boosting the electric vehicle market further.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “Over the next 12 months, Londoners will see 1600 electric vehicle charge points being installed across the city helping electric driving to become a common-sense option for many people. By 2013 this will become 7,500 and by 2015 we want 25,000 in place. In plain terms, these procurement frameworks will allow us to drive down costs and achieve better value for money as we progress with our plans to expand vehicle usage.”

Electric vehicles emit thirty to forty per cent lower carbon emissions than comparable petrol or diesel cars. This will reduce further over time as the amount of energy – which charges the electric vehicles batteries – generated by renewable sources increases. They also do not emit any harmful emissions from the exhaust helping to improve London’s poor air quality.

Graeme Craig, TfL’s Director of Congestion Charging and Traffic Enforcement, said: “TfL has hit the ground running to deliver the UK’s largest electric vehicle charge point network following the London consortium’s successful bid last month to the Government’s ‘Plugged in Places’ fund. London is particularly well suited to the expansion of electric vehicles as 90 per cent of car journeys are less than 10 miles, well within the travel range of existing electric vehicles.”

The Mayor has previously announced that a single London-wide brand for electric vehicles in the Capital will be launched so that Londoners will be able to clearly identify where a charging point is located. This will be joined by a new website providing Londoners with a one-stop shop of information on electric vehicles and charging points including details. A number of incentives are also being considered in addition to the congestion charge exemption for electric vehicles in the capital.

The procurement frameworks to supply the 1,000 electric vehicles and electric vehicle charge points will be finalised by early 2011. Both frameworks will run until 2015.