Regional Development Agency One North East and Nissan Motor have entered the next phase of their partnership on the development of zero emission mobility in north east England, home to the automaker’s Sunderland plant.
The two parties have signed a definitive agreement which sets out a road map for the roll-out of electric vehicles and infrastructure and cements the region’s status as the national centre for the development of ultra low carbon vehicles.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The agreement also contains firm commitments on incentives for drivers and education and demonstration initiatives that will be introduced throughout 2010 and 2011.
Under the agreement, One North East will install at least 619 publicly available, ‘future-proof’ charging points by 1 January, 2011, which will support both 3kW and 7kW charges and will also include 12 50kW ‘rapid-charging’ stations.
Electricity at the 619 charging points will be provided free of charge until 31 March, 2012, or until an itemised billing system becomes available. As part of the agreement, One North East has already installed two charging points for public use within its own head office car park at Newburn Riverside in Newcastle.
Nissan has agreed to work in partnership with One North East to supply Leaf electric vehicles to the region in early 2011 and to place priority on requests for electric vehicles in the UK from north east England.
The Sunderland car factory will also produce batteries for electric vehicles in the future.
One North East will now work with regional partners on developing incentives for people driving electric vehicles that include introducing at least 200 free of charge, dedicated public parking places by November 2010, and introducing preferential access to identified road lanes and city areas. The agency is also working with developers to have charging points installed in newly constructed buildings which feature parking spaces.
The agreement also includes One North East’s commitment to a GBP2.4m investment in the National Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and a GBP2.3m investment in the Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Development Centre.
