£3.4m funding to put taxis on an electric meter

Some of Birmingham and Wolverhampton’s taxis will be charging the meter in a new way after the cities received £3.4m in government funding to support electric vehicle charging points.

The money is part of a £20m pot from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) to grow the number of electric taxis.

Work can now start on building the infrastructure to facilitate electric taxis as they become more readily available over the next decade.

Birmingham plans to have 197 charge points across the city centre and outer city areas, including two charge point hubs at Tyseley Energy Park, on the main route to Birmingham Airport and the Birmingham NEC, and at Birmingham New Street Station’s Ellis Street car park.

Wolverhampton, which will receive £478,000, plans to install an initial 24 charging points over the next three years, with the aid of match funding from council capital and revenue budgets.

The city is aiming to convert 16% of both the Hackney and private hire fleets in the city to electric vehicles by 2020.

Cllr John Reynolds, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for city economy, said: “We are working closely with the taxi drivers in the city on this project.

“Electric taxis bring many benefits. They improve air quality and public health, make the city more attractive, support the economy of the Midlands, and support innovation and transformation, as well as help reduce carbon emissions.”

The government will provide top up grants of £7,500 to purchasers of the least polluting category of new electric Hackney carriages.

Birmingham is “working towards” a 50% uptake of ultra-low or zero-emissions vehicles across the entire fleet by 2020.

The city is one of five mandated by the Government to implement a Clean Air Zone in order to become compliant with air quality legislation.

Cllr Lisa Trickett, cabinet member with responsibility for air quality at Birmingham City Council, said: “Everyone living and working in the city has the right to clean air and our taxi fleet will play a key role in helping us to achieve this, so I am absolutely delighted that we have been successful in our bid for this crucial funding.”

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