UK’s first ‘Electric Avenue’ unveiled in Westminster

The UK’s first avenue that has been fully converted to cater for electric vehicle (EV) charging has been unveiled by ubitricity, Westminster City Council and Siemens.

The project, coined ‘Electric Avenue, W9’, has converted 24 lampposts into EV charge points using existing city infrastructure. Residents can now charge EVs at various locations along Sutherland Avenue in London, with a further two adjoining roads due to be completed in the coming weeks.

The launch follows research conducted by Siemens that revealed over a third (36 per cent) of British motorists planned to buy a hybrid or electric vehicle as their next car, with two in five people (40 per cent) saying that a lack of charging points stopped them from doing so sooner. Westminster has seen a 40 per cent growth in EVs charged in the borough during 2019.

Westminster City Council currently has more EV points than any UK local authority, with a total of 296 lamp column charge points in the city, 24 of which are located on ‘Electric Avenue, W9’. There are plans to reach 1,000 charge points across Westminster City Council within the next year, as it has twice the number of locally registered EVs than any other inner London borough, and the most among all the other London boroughs. 

“We know that half of London’s air pollution is caused by road transport and Westminster is a particularly busy area. While we cannot solve the challenge of air quality overnight, ‘Electric Avenue W9’ is an important showcase of what’s possible using existing city infrastructure. It illustrates how residential streets will look in the near future, and accelerates the shift to zero emission vehicles,” said Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure. 

“In a city that suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the country, we need to be supporting the change to green technology as much as we can. ‘Electric Avenue, W9’ gives us a glimpse into the future of streets in Westminster, where we hope to provide the infrastructure needed for our residents to make the switch to cleaner, greener transport,” said Cllr Andrew Smith, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Environment & Highways.