{"id":34723,"date":"2023-06-13T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T23:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=34723"},"modified":"2023-06-12T16:42:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T15:42:53","slug":"openreach-tight-lipped-on-proposal-for-uk-ev-chargers-next-to-fttc-cabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/06\/openreach-tight-lipped-on-proposal-for-uk-ev-chargers-next-to-fttc-cabs.html","title":{"rendered":"Openreach Tight Lipped on Proposal for UK EV Chargers Next to FTTC Cabs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Network access provider Openreach<\/a> has declined to elaborate on a recently revealed proposal from their CEO, Clive Selley, which confirmed that the UK broadband giant was “exploring whether it’s practical<\/em>” to deploy public EV chargers next to some of their 90,000 or so FTTC<\/a> (VDSL2<\/a>) street cabinets.<\/p>\n

The operator is already well-known to be in the process of converting (replacing) all of its diesel fleet to electric by 2030, which reflects around 28,000 vans across the UK that are used for essential work every day. Various models from Renault<\/strong> (here<\/a>) and Vauxhall<\/strong> (here<\/a>) have already been deployed, and they currently expect to have just shy of 5,000 EVs by the end of this financial year.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> The EV upgrade plan doesn\u2019t include specialist vehicles and heavy equipment (e.g. hoists\/cherry-pickers, ditch witches etc.), often because such variants don’t yet exist or are very expensive.<\/div>\n

However, Openreach<\/a> is under no illusion that this will be a difficult task, with their EV Fleet Accelerator Report 2021<\/strong><\/a> pointing to a lack of adequate charging infrastructure. The Charge Point Operators (CPOs) have also cited a lack of demand, while fleet operators point to a lack of van availability and high connection costs at their depots. In addition, there is also no large-scale UK manufacturer of electric vans, which is an issue for companies that are being encouraged to “buy British<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

In fairness, national charging infrastructure is improving, but Openreach<\/a> want to see it grow at a faster pace. As part of that, they’re already installing home charging systems for employees with a garage or driveway and at their own depots. But that doesn’t work so well in dense urban areas (big cities), where they’re more dependent upon public charging infrastructure.<\/p>\n

One way to tackle this might be for Openreach to take a leaf out of Liberty Global and Virgin Media<\/a>’s book, such as by harnessing their existing street cabinets (i.e. related infrastructure and ducts) in order to deploy a new network of public charging points.<\/p>\n

Liberty’s approach is called Liberty Charge<\/a> (now rebranded to Believ<\/strong><\/a>) and Selley recently confirmed, as part of an interview by Richard Tang (CEO of Zen Internet<\/a>), that Openreach had begun “exploring whether it’s practical<\/em>” to install charging points adjacent to some of their 90,000 FTTC<\/a> broadband cabinets. We meant to report on this last month, but forgot due to it clashing with the bank holiday break.<\/p>\n