IN Brief:
- ubitricity has installed 400 lamppost EV charge points across the London Borough of Bexley.
- The rollout builds on 100 earlier installations, taking the borough network to 500 points.
- The chargers use existing street-light infrastructure and include smart charging software.
ubitricity has completed the installation of 400 lamppost EV charge points across the London Borough of Bexley, expanding the borough’s on-street residential charging network to 500 public charge points.
The units were installed between November 2025 and March 2026, with more than 200 installed during December alone. The charge points have been retrofitted into existing lampposts on residential streets and can take less than 30 minutes to install. Each unit includes ubitricity’s smart charging software, which enables drivers to charge selectively when tariffs are lower.
ubitricity, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell, will supply, install, operate, and maintain the charge points for the borough. The latest rollout builds on 100 charge points installed in Bexley in 2023 and forms part of the company’s wider UK network, which now includes more than 14,600 public charge points.
Lamppost charging occupies a defined role within the EV infrastructure mix. It does not replace rapid hubs, depot charging, workplace charging, or motorway sites. Its purpose is to provide local access where households do not have driveways, garages, or private off-street parking. In dense urban and suburban streets, using existing street-light columns can reduce additional street furniture and limit civil works.
The electrical design differs significantly from a rapid charging hub. Lamppost units operate at lower power and are intended for longer dwell times, often overnight or during extended parking periods. Installation work is therefore shaped by asset mapping, street-light supply suitability, earthing, cable routing, pavement safety, parking layout, back-office systems, maintenance access, and user reliability.
Bexley’s rollout sits alongside a broader split in charging formats. Fastned’s approved Hanger Lane hub in Ealing will deliver 36 ultra-rapid charging bays of up to 400kW, with a layout designed around high-throughput public charging. The project, detailed in Fastned secures approval for Hanger Lane charging hub, requires substantial grid connection capacity, transformer provision, protection design, and site-level electrical engineering.
Fleet and heavy-vehicle charging are developing along another path. Recent UK megawatt charging activity has shown high-power depot systems being installed for electric HGV operations, while long-term public charging contracts progress through local authority frameworks. UK megawatt charging rollout gathers pace covered how depot charging, public infrastructure, high-power DC systems, and long-term operating models are developing in parallel.
The Bexley installation forms part of that layered charging system. On-street residential charging supports routine local use. Rapid hubs support turnaround. Depot systems support scheduled fleet operation. Workplace and destination charging fill longer dwell-time gaps. Each format creates different network demands, installation requirements, user behaviours, and maintenance models.
For local authorities, lamppost charging can offer a relatively fast deployment route where street-light infrastructure is suitable. It can also help avoid trailing cables across pavements, additional standalone posts, and heavier civil interventions. Power level remains the main constraint: lamppost charging works best where vehicles can remain connected for longer periods and where the local network can accommodate clustered overnight demand.
Smart charging becomes more valuable as deployments scale. If large numbers of low-power chargers operate at the same time in the same neighbourhood, local peaks can still emerge. Tariff-aware charging, load management, and network visibility will therefore become increasingly important as on-street networks expand from pilot streets into borough-wide infrastructure.
Bexley’s 400-unit rollout adds volume to a category of EV infrastructure that is less visually prominent than rapid hubs but central to urban adoption. The engineering task is to make that infrastructure routine: quick to install, safe to operate, reliable to use, and manageable as part of a local electricity network carrying more distributed demand.
