Sheffield taxis get new £500,000 charge points

Green taxi drivers are set to have 20 more charge points around the city, as part of Sheffield City Council’s goal to reduce carbon emissions.
Taxi. Photo credit: Ian Nicholson/PA WireTaxi. Photo credit: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire
Taxi. Photo credit: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire

The council won a bid of nearly £500,000 from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles to deliver the rapid charge points within the next year.

They said rapid chargers are the fastest way to charge an electric vehicle - with the ability to bring a car to 80 per cent within 20 to 40 minutes.

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Councillor Jack Scott, cabinet member for transport and development, said: “This is excellent news for Sheffield and enables us to make good progress towards our clean air ambition but even more investment and support is sorely needed.

“I have said all along that the success of the clean air zone is not going to be measured by its income, but by the way it changes people’s behaviour and helps us address our public health goals and carbon targets.

“Having these rapid charge points will encourage more taxi drivers to make the switch to green Ultra-Low emission vehicles and ensure that they don’t pass on costs to their customers.

“But I want to see far more investment for Sheffield and that’s why we’ve submitted an outline business case that enables us to drive home our clean air ambitions.”

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It comes as part of the council’s plans to make 90 percent of the Hackney black cab taxi fleet ultra low emission vehicles by 2021, as well as almost all of the city’s private hire vehicles.

The council are also gearing up to introduce a pollution charge, or clean air zone, which will cost £50 a day for all buses, taxis, vans and lorries using the ring road.