Energy firm insists it is ready to install thousands of new charging points for electric cars in Portsmouth

Scottish and Southern Electricity Network (SSEN) has unveiled its ambition to install 20,000 off-street and 1,200 on-street charging points on the island over the next decade.

The project came after prime minister Boris Johnson revealed his ‘green industrial revolution’ which will see the UK banning the sale of petrol and diesel-powered cars and vans by 2030.

Currently Portsmouth has about 500 off-street charging points and 36 on-street ones. But over the next five years, SSEN has claimed it could boost this to 6.000 off-street and 600 on-street.

Richard Hartshom, the energy firm’s electric vehicle readiness manager, said the project had the potential to revolutionise Portsmouth’s transport network.

‘There will be the usual challenges like to invest in some networks we might have to put in bigger cables but if we were to do smart charging, that will help reduce the amount of generation that needs to be built,’ he added.

City bosses have welcomed the news and insisted they were ‘open to any and all offers’.

It comes as Portsmouth City Council continues to drive forward it’s major revamp of the island’s electric car charging facilities.

Councillor Steve Pitt, deputy leader of the authority, said a number of discussions had already between the council and energy firms but that no plan had yet been agreed.

He added: ‘It’s important that we’re rolling out was fast as we can and making sure that we’re offering these new facilities.’

Currently fewer than one per cent of cars on UK roads are powered entirely by electricity.

Since 2015 the number of electric vehicles in Portsmouth has almost doubled, rising from 1,033 to 2,025 in 2019.

Portsmouth City Council is already in the middle of a major revamp of electric car charging facilities on the island.

The authority is set to implement up to 83 new on-street points across the city – up from the 79 initially proposed earlier this year - adding to 36 already in place.

Travel body Transport for the South East has backed investment in new charging points and said cutting the number of petrol or diesel-powered cars on the road could drastically reduce pollution levels.

Councillor Keith Glazier, the organisation’s chairman, said: ‘This is a once-in-a-generation chance to put the UK on the right trajectory to avoid the catastrophic impacts of carbon induced global warming. It will need investment at a time when we’ve already spent billions dealing with the impact of Covid-19. As painful as this might be, it pales against the financial and economic consequences if we fail to act properly.’