Southampton rolls out electric vehicle charging in city centre car parks

Southampton City Council has installed 30 new electric vehicle (EV) charging points across five city centre multi-storey car parks.

Southampton selected NewMotion’s charging points, which were installed by JoJu over a six-week period. JoJu was able to connect the charging points using the car parks’ existing electrical grids. 

The EV charging scheme is part of a broader initiative to tackle air pollution in the city. Last year, Southampton was one of 40 UK cities named in the World Health Organisation’s poll as having damaging air safety levels. 

Councillor Christopher Hammond, cabinet member for sustainable living, said Southampton’s goal is to be one of five places in the UK to introduce emission zones on diesel vehicles in 2020. “The city council is fully committed to reducing air pollution from exhaust emissions from vehicles in the city. Facilitating the uptake of electric vehicles is part of our clean air strategy and these 30 chargers are the first of a city-wide network.”

By offering charge points, Southampton wants EV drivers to forget about range anxiety. To motivate others to use EVs, Southampton also plans to reduce parking charges and bridge tolls.

The NewMotion points and are activated using a smart card system. They feature dynamic load balancing, which means the charge points can allocate power between cars without overloading the electrical grid. Charge points have the ability to communicate with one another during times of high charge demand to minimise electrical overload in the grid, saving unnecessary costs in upgrading grid connections.