SSE has welcomed the news that the UK Treasury is to make available a £400 million fund to bolster electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The news confirms legislators are serious about a low carbon future.

It is understood that the funds will help create 3,000 new rapid charge points, which can halve the charging time for a family car from 40 to 20 minutes and will more than double the number of rapid charge points across the UK in the next five years.

A review is also currently underway to explore the provision of charge points across major road networks, meaning drivers could charge their car whilst stopping for a coffee at a service station. These are all things that SSE Enterprise welcomes with open arms as they match many of the things that we are looking at as an EV infrastructure business. We are already a leading provider of EV infrastructure helping cities like London or Oxford to get rid of polluting vehicles.

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SSE Enterprise has also demonstrated its e-bus capabilities with a host of projects across London. The business has delivered a number of builds for key clients – including Go Ahead London, Metroline and RATP Dev – totalling around £6.8m over the last 3.5 years. Across each site, SSE Enterprise has applied high standards expected when delivering projects for public sector clients with cutting edge technology. This includes London Waterloo, which is Go Ahead London's biggest zero-emissions hub, and the biggest of its kind in Europe, powering 47 e-buses.

Consumer behaviour is key when it comes to EVs and helping the commercial sector to be part of the solution is crucial to clean up the air we breathe and achieve the national ambition of a net zero carbon target by 2050. SSE Enterprise recently announced it had secured funding for a cutting edge £5.2m (£3.4m grant funded) pilot scheme helping homeowners without off-road parking charge their electric vehicles (EVs) for a Park and Charge scheme in Oxford.

It was also announced that SSE Group has joined The Climate Group's global EV100 initiative, which aims to garner corporate backing and make EVs 'the new normal' by 2030. This is another step for SSE on the road to a low carbon future by committing to electrifying its fleet and reducing its estate's carbon emissions.

SSE currently operates the 7th largest fleet in the UK and under the terms of the EV100 initiative, will switch 3,500 of the businesses vehicles to electric, as well as installing additional charging points for its employees to use in various offices, depots, and other locations.

SSE are looking at opportunities with a range of partners as they scale up the new generation of EV infrastructure and drive towards a low carbon future.

(MH/CM)