Hitchin first town to install ‘pioneering’ electric car charging tech. Written by Daniel and read to you by Cassidy, subscribe to Electric Vehicle News Bitesize Podcast for FREE!

Kerbo Charge will save Hitchin residents £1,506 a year and significantly reduce the hassle of charging their cars.

Hitchin has been named the first UK town to install a Kerbo Charge Electric Vehicle charging station, making the town a pioneer in Electric Vehicle charging. The news came this week (Tuesday 17 January) when a Hitchin resident became a customer of new technology that will allow drivers without off-street parking to safely and affordably charge their cars at home.

Kerbo Charge is said to save the resident £1,506 a year and significantly reduce the hassle she has to charge her car. Before the January 10 installation, a resident had to drive two miles to a nearby charging station every time she needed to charge her car.

The Hitchin resident now has a wall charger and a specially designed polymer pipe with a self-closing cover on the pavement outside her home. She plugs a cable into the channel, closes the lid, and starts charging her car through the app.

Kerbo Charge was created through the influential Fully Charged show, and host Jack Scarlett described it as “so simple I wish I could have thought of it myself”. This led to the innovative tech company being inundated with inquiries from people across the UK keen to register, but the town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire was chosen as the first location.

Kerbo Charge Co-Founder Michael Goulden is thrilled with the interest from Hertfordshire residents in particular who make up 15 percent of his entire national enquiries. He said: “The reception from electric vehicle drivers has been phenomenal across the UK, but we’ve been particularly impressed by the interest from drivers in Hertfordshire who represented a whopping 15% of all national enquiries.

“40% of the UK population don’t have off-street parking and the top two reasons given for not buying an electric car are the inability to safely charge at home and the cost of public charging. Kerbo Charge is here to change that.”

Kerbo Charge is currently available to all residents living on private roads. The startup is working with local government to roll it out to homes along public pavements later this year. The first council to join is Milton Keynes as they start a process next month in February.

He said: “I’m desperate to get Kerbo Charge as it’s costing me so much to charge my car and I hate having to drive to a public charging point. I’m calling on Hertfordshire County Council to let all of us who don’t live on private roads take advantage of it as soon as possible!”

Residents of private roads can sign up straight away at Kerbo Charge, with prices starting at £1,149. Drivers not living on private roads can register their interest on the website to get priority access when the scheme becomes available in their area. For more information, visit the Kerbo Charge website here.

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