UK’s ‘Street Lamp’ EV Chargers Under Fire: Can They Really Spark an Electric Revolution

Safety risks and parking issues

In the UK, more than 40% of households do not have a garage and rely on street lamp-type chargers to charge electric vehicles (EVs). However, this is causing various problems, such as risk to the chargers and a reduction in parking spaces.

As the name suggests, a street lamp charger is a combination of a street lamp and an EV charger, and although the output is low at around 5kW, it has the advantage of being able to use existing street lights. There are chargers installed on around 20,000 street lamps in the UK, and they are particularly useful in urban areas with many apartment buildings.

The government has also been focusing on this area as part of its efforts to promote the spread of EVs. However, in July of this year, after residents in the west London borough of Hounslow reported that the chargers were no longer working, the government cut off power to several street lamp-type chargers in the borough.

After an inspection, the council concluded that rainwater had gotten into the chargers, causing damage to the chargers and street lights. Ubitricity, the company that installed the chargers, then repaired them and restored power.

Hounslow also experienced trouble in April, when residents protested against the installation of street lamp chargers in an area with few EVs, claiming that they had lost eight gasoline parking spaces. The council promised to act but did not respond to Autocar’s request for comment.

This is not the first time streetlight chargers have attracted negative reaction: last November Portsmouth City Council disconnected power to 98 chargers mounted on lampposts and bollards over safety concerns.

The city council said it had instructed Ubitricity to fix the problem “as soon as possible”. However, as of June this year, only 41 chargers had been restored.

A Ubitricity spokesman said about the issues in both areas that the company was “working closely with local authorities to restore service to these areas.”

Streetlight chargers, which are popular in the UK, are made by several operators, including industry leader Ubitricity and Char.gy, which installed London’s first charger in 2018.

When installing chargers, local authorities can apply for access to the UK government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (Levi) Fund, a total of £350 million (approximately 67.5 billion yen).

“Levi is a game changer,” says Joe Michaels, CEO of Joju, a company that installs and maintains public chargers. “Governments are keen to increase the number of public chargers, and putting them on streetlights is an easy thing to do. We’re very optimistic about the future.”

In addition, the new generation of LED street lights consume less power than conventional bulb types, leaving more power available for charging EVs, which is also encouraging local governments to adopt them.

Michaels argues that most street light chargers are reliable: “The water ingress into the Hounslow light pole was probably due to a poorly manufactured or poorly installed pole.”

Recently, UK Power Networks, an electricity supplier for London and the south, gave permission for chargers to be installed on old lampposts.

It had ordered local governments to stop installing chargers on old light poles with outdated wiring due to safety concerns, but a report conducted in collaboration with Ubitricity concluded there were no safety concerns and told the 133 local governments that own and operate the poles to continue with the rollout as planned.

But challenges remain. The Automobile Association (AA) has cited rising electricity prices as a problem, reporting that while they have now fallen to around 59 pence per kWh, public charging at peak times can still be more expensive than running a petrol car. As a result, the AA is calling on the government to reduce VAT on charging.

In 2022, Ubitricity will introduce a smart charging system that will allow vehicles to be scheduled to charge at cheaper off-peak overnight rates.

As Hounslow residents point out, street lamp chargers and dedicated EV parking spaces also often sit empty and unused – a classic chicken-and-egg scenario.

“People will be annoyed if there’s an empty parking space on a busy street, but some municipalities believe that having an empty parking space will motivate non-EV drivers to consider switching to EVs,” Michaels says.

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