BT Group Repurposes Public Infrastructure With EV Charging Trial

BT Group owns street cabinets across the UK, traditionally used for local broadband and phone cabling. This project is set to use these cabinets to power newly installed EV chargers without affecting their current broadband function. Eventually, the cabinets will no longer need to house broadband cabling, as the company continues to roll out fibre optic broadband cabling (which goes directly to consumers), enabling even more charging points. 

BT Group is working with its business start-up incubation hub Etc. on repurposing the street cabinets. The project began in East Lothian, Scotland, where locals can charge their EVs for free until the end of May. It will then become a paid-for pilot scheme before a decision is made on its future. Next, the pilot will move to England, with up to 600 trial sites across West Yorkshire. Across the UK, BT Group has identified 60,000 possible sites, potentially doubling the existing 53,000 public EV chargers available (Zapmap, 2024). 

Elsewhere, US retailer Walmart has declared it will add Level 3 chargers to 800 of its stores by 2030 (Walmart, 2023), while Denmark plans to add 25 heavy transport charging stations along major highways by 2025 (Trans.Info, 2023). The EU also passed a new law that will require fast-charging EV stations to be located every 60km along highways by 2025, and aims to have one million public charging points installed across the region by the end of that year (World Economic Forum, 2023).