Residents of the London Borough of Richmond will save £1,100 a year and accelerate EV adoption at no cost to the council after the launch of a new EV charging scheme.

Richmond is working with British innovators Kerbo Charge to roll out through-pavement EV charging channels – a home charging solution for residents who don’t have driveways. Instead of being reliant on public charge points, drivers can now safely charge their electric vehicles right outside their front door.

When a resident wants to charge their car, they insert their charging cable into the channel, and the specially designed lid closes behind it like a zip, eliminating potentially hazardous cables stretching across footpaths.

Michael Goulden, CEO and Co-founder of Kerbo Charge said: “Congratulations to Richmond Council – this is all about removing barriers to EV adoption and tackling the ‘pavement tax’ – the additional cost of owning an EV if you have on-street parking – which is 60% of Londoners.”

The rollout of these through-pavement charging channels to all Richmond residents makes owning an EV much more appealing- residents can then charge off-peak for as little as £4, compared to around £25 when using neighbourhood public charge points.

Kerbo Charge founders Michael Goulden and Ben Whitaker pitched the product to the BBC’s Dragons’s Den in 2024 and received £50,000 investment from Deborah Meaden. Since then the technology has been adopted by 30 local authorities but most of these have been outside of London. Whitaker spoke with Highways News at the 2024 LCRIG Innovation Festival (starting at 23’10) about the company’s innovative technology.

(Pic: Kerbo Charge)