More than 200 electric car charging points are being proposed across Brighton and Hove.
Earlier this year Brighton and Hove City Council won £300,000 towards the project from the government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles.
Today (Tuesday 26 June) the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee is expected to approve putting in the extra electric charging points throughout the area.
The council plans to instal the charging points in lamp posts in areas where people park on the street.
It proposes that all controlled parking zones should have at least a few charging points each so that people can charge their cars closer to home.
At the moment the council has ten on-street and eight off-street charging points, installed after the council won EU funding.
Charging at a public point is currently free.
In the past four years the cost to the council of providing free charging points has gone up more than tenfold.
Cost of electricity to Brighton and Hove City Council for on-street charging
2017-18 £8,522
2016-17 £4,367
2015-16 £5,178
2014-15 £747
Currently electric vehicle drivers use 40,000 kilowatt hours a year.
Now the council is looking for a private sector partner to invest £100,000 to supply, operate and maintain charging points in return for a share of the fees to be charged to drivers.
Demand is increasing for electric charging points, the council said, with more than 50 requests received from electric car owners since 2014.
Nationally new registrations of electric cars has gone up from 3,500 in 2013 to more than 145,000 by April this year.
