Member Article

Northumberland businesses benefit from electric car subsidy

The Plugged in Places scheme is planning to make further expansions into Northumberland, and businesses in the area could be set to benefit from a 100% subsidy.

Charge Your Car, the North East’s Plugged in Places scheme plans to install 1000 charging points across the region by 2013, but Northumberland is currently trailing behind other parts of the North East.

Businesses in strategic locations are now being given the opportunity to have a charging point installed for a limited time only, to ensure the network is fully joined up. This represents a saving of around £5,00 per business.

Since the North East was chosen as one of the first three areas in the country to put in place an electric vehicle infrastructure in 2010, businesses, local authorities and domestic users have been able to take advantage of funding support, which means there are now 300 charging points in place or in the pipeline.

Josey Wardle, project manager at Charge your Car, which operate from a base at Gateshead College commented: “Although there has been a significant number of charging points already installed in Northumberland, the county is significantly behind other parts of the region.

“We have introduced this revised funding offer to encourage more businesses in Northumberland to plug into the network, boosting their green credentials and saving money.”

One of the companies looking to take advantage of the scheme is Phoenix Taxis. When the firm moves to new state-of-the-art premises next month, they plan to accommodate three EV charging points.

The move will also give the firm the opportunity to have a positive impact on the environment, and for owner Alex Hurst the move makes perfect sense for the future direction of the company.

He commented: “As Northumberland’s largest taxi firm we’re very conscious of the impact that we as a business, and the wider taxi trade, has on the UK’s Carbon Footprint so we’re fully committed to taking steps to reduce that impact.

“At the moment, most of our vehicles run on Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) rather than Diesel or Petrol, however by the summer we’re looking to introduce a number of electric vehicles into the fleet, not only to meet our own environmental objectives but to provide a selling point for customers with green agendas, as well as to ultimately save the business money on fuel and maintenance costs.”

Alongside this offer, small businesses, green businesses and third sector organisations can take advantage of a75% funding offer for a limited time.

To qualify, hosts must provide free electricity for EV charging for three years, free parking and access to the point, as well as the promise to maintain the equipment for at least 5 years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .