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UK has turned the street lamps into electric car charging stations

Siemens and Ubitricity have set up electric car charging stations in streetlamps in the city of Westminster where an entire street is now known as the Electric Avenue, W9. This is a first of its kind in the UK as their streetlights are now on double duty.

According to research carried out by Siemens, one-third of motorists in the UK intend to purchase an electric car in either a hybrid or an all-electric version. Out of those, 40 percent of the people claimed that if there were improvements made to the current setup, they would have made a switch towards an electric future much sooner.

electric car charging stations

1300 electric car charging stations have been installed across UK

People in London that drive seem to be under the impression that there are only 100 – 200 points available for charging and they also feel that recharging their electrical vehicles at their houses or place of work is impossible. Ubricity, a company based in Berlin, has been in the process of upgrading streetlamps into electric car charging stations in the UK that started in 2015, and since then, along with Siemens, they have now been able to install 1,300 of these all over the city.

electric car charging stations

Streetlight columns that are already in place are then installed with technology needed for charging on the existing infrastructure, therefore additional digging of roads is not required for the conversion. A SmartCable plugs right into the column of a streetlamp with the other end that connects to the electric car enabling users to charge their electric battery or hybrid plugin vehicles outside their homes without garages overnight. There is a meter box that notes the amount in kilowatt-hours used up and so the users are charged correspondingly.

electric car charging stationsThere are 296 streetlamps with electric car charging stations in Westminster city in total whereas Sutherland Avenue is said to have a completed full transformation of its streetlamps and becomes the first residential avenue in the UK. In the coming year, the city council is considering to convert 1000 streetlamps into charging areas located in the inner borough of London.

All Images: © Siemens

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