TfL to ‘stop check’ and evaluate whether there is enough electric charge points for taxis

Transport for London (TfL) will have to ‘stop check’ and evaluate whether there is currently enough electric taxi charging points in London at the moment.

Speaking at an event held at the Palace of Westminster earlier this week, a panel of leading figures across the taxi and electric vehicle industry, met to discuss the future of zero emission capable (ZEC) taxis and how the Government should best support the industry’s progress in adopting ZEC taxi technology.

During the discussions it was revealed that charge point usage within the taxi industry has ‘more or less doubled’.

The panel, which included representatives from LEVC, Free Now, TfL and Charge Point, discussed whether there was a need for a better rapid charging infrastructure.

Lucy Hayward-Speight, Transport Strategy and Planning Manager at TfL, said: “By funding through OLEV there will be 300 rapid charges across London by the end of 2020. We’re on 226 at the moment.

“There are also obviously private rapid charge points as well, the last check on Zap-Map showed 341 rapids in London at the moment.

“Obviously, we’re always asked the question, is this number sufficient, will 300 by the end of the year be sufficient, what is enough?

“So we're trying to check usage. One of the agreements we have when we give funding towards rapid charge points is that we will gather the data on usage and view that across time. We have seen record growth in usage, as you would expect with the number of black cabs in London that are electric up to about 3,000.

Hayward-Speight went on to highlight a report published in June 2019 which showed the usage of charge points had “more or less than doubled".

“We are seeing such a huge growth and we are going to have to stop check to see whether this is going to be enough," added Hayward-Speight.