BT GroupBT has abandoned its scheme to convert green street cabinets to electric vehicle (EV) charging points and has completed just one of the 60,000 conversions it initially said it aimed for.
The metal cases, seen on streets around the UK, are commonly used for phone and broadband cables.
When this announced the project in April 2024.BT said the cabinet redesign was a “unique opportunity” to address a “key barrier” for people moving away from petrol and diesel cars.
However, the scheme has now been scrapped with the firm saying it will instead focus on the “Wi-Fi connectivity challenge around EVs”.
“It’s disappointing that it’s not going ahead,” Stuart Mason of automotive website The Car Expert told BBC News.
“The good news we’re seeing in the industry is that the overall rollout of electric charging points is happening faster than what was predicted a few years ago,” he added.
However, he said most charging points were in busy areas near people’s homes rather than on roads, meaning BT’s decision was still a setback.
Mr Mason welcomed his commitment to improve Wi-Fi infrastructure around EV charging points.
“It’s very frustrating when you go to a charging point, go to log into the app… and you can’t get a connection because you’re buried somewhere in a multi-storey car park and there’s no signal. ” he said.
“If BT can make a dent in that that would be really good.”
Many green cabinets are coming to the end of their lives as BT upgrades to fiber broadband.
But only one of these, in East Lothian, was ever converted into a public charging point.
It will now close in February. Fast charge newsletter, which broke the story.
The charger currently appears as “out of order” on the Evve Charge app, which shows the locations of EV chargers in the UK.
East Lothian Council has been contacted for comment.
A BT Group spokeswoman said the trial “examines much of the challenges many on-street EV drivers are facing with charging and where BT Group is at the forefront of the UK EV ecosystem. can add more value.”
He added: “Other emerging needs we have identified include the Wi-Fi connectivity challenge around EVs – our pilot will now focus on exploring this further.”
The government has set a target of 300,000 public charging points by 2030.
Its own figures show there are 73,334 public charging devices in the UK – a 37% increase on a year ago.
About a third of these are in Greater London, according to the EV Charging Company. Zapmap.