Liberty Global Unveils Details of Electric Vehicle Charging Consortium

Liberty Global, one of the world’s leading converged video, broadband and communications companies, today unveils details of a new project that utilizes the network infrastructure of its UK subsidiary, Virgin Media, to help revolutionise on-street electric vehicle charging.

Leveraging Virgin Media’s 40,000 powered street cabinets and 170,000 km of ducts, Liberty Global’s project has been created in partnership with Innovate UK, the UK government’s research and innovation department, to help local authorities find a solution to limited on-street electric vehicle charging points and thereby encourage more people to use electric vehicles. In addition to tapping Virgin Media’s powered network infrastructure, the project utilises the UK operator’s construction and deployment capabilities and its trusted relationships with local authority partners.

Over the next 18 months, Liberty Global aims to deploy and operate 1,200 charging sockets across the country through the project. The rollout of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations using Virgin Media’s connectivity will build a fully scalable electric vehicle charging network, helping the UK government move closer to its goal of reducing net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.

Liberty Global is taking part in the project as part of a 19-strong consortium working under the project name Virgin Media Park & Charge. The consortium includes delivery partners Vattenfall and SMS plc and specialist technology partners Cenex, Ginger Town, Fully Charged, Connected Kerb, DETA and Loughborough University. This is in addition to several local authorities including the West Midlands Combined Authority as well as Councils in Oxfordshire, Liverpool, Southend on Sea, Worcestershire, Wandsworth, Croydon, Northamptonshire, Hammersmith & Fulham and Belfast.

Jason Simpson, Vice President Global Energy and Utilities for Liberty Global, comments, "Leveraging street cabinets allows Liberty Global to look beyond traditional uses of telecom infrastructure and make a positive impact on the environment and in communities throughout the UK. By bringing more electric vehicle chargers and associated connectivity to Britain’s streets, we are making a significant contribution to Innovate UK’s ambition to encourage more people to buy electric cars. We’re excited to be working with a wide array of partners who each bring their own areas of expertise to this exciting and innovative project.”

Liberty Global is already a proven advocate of electric vehicles as the largest investor in electric car racing championship Formula E. Liberty Global has also been recognized for its leadership in ethical and sustainable practices, having recently been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the seventh consecutive year. It is also the first cable operator to set ambitious science-based targets to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions.

ABOUT LIBERTY GLOBAL

Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK) is one of the world’s leading converged video, broadband and communications companies, with operations in six European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Telenet and UPC. We invest in the infrastructure and digital platforms that empower our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our substantial scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect 11 million customers subscribing to 25 million TV, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 6 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service through millions of access points across our footprint.

In addition, Liberty Global owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a joint venture in the Netherlands with 4 million customers subscribing to 10 million fixed-line and 5 million mobile services, as well as significant investments in ITV, All3Media, ITI Neovision, LionsGate, the Formula E racing series and several regional sports networks.

Notes to editors

Partners

Cenex

Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies, operates as an independent not-for-profit consultancy and research organisation. Established in 2005, we have spent over a decade at the forefront of low emission technology research so that we can provide our customers with trustworthy, evidence-based expertise and insights, from feasibility through to implementation and training. We understand our customers values, drivers and motivations, and combine this with data collection, analysis and insight into cutting edge technologies in order to develop an evidence-based strategy that helps them to reduce their emissions, increase efficiency and lower costs.

Connected Kerb

Connected Kerb have designed a future-proof, sustainable, smart cities infrastructure platform. The system is the first of its kind, combining power and data at kerbside to enable charging and connectivity for electric and autonomous vehicles, and support the application of advanced IoT technologies. The system is split between a subterranean node box that houses the intelligent componentry, and the above-ground charge point sockets, which are made from >80% recycled vehicle tyres and fit to existing street furniture. The charge points act as Wi-Fi / 5G access points, enabling air quality, traffic and other IoT sensors. The system can support wireless induction charging and vehicle-to-grid technologies.”

Vattenfall

Vattenfall is a leading European energy company, that for more than 100 years has electrified industries, supplied energy to people’s homes and modernised our way of living through innovation and cooperation. We now want to make fossil-free living possible within one generation. Therefore, we are driving the transition to a more sustainable energy system through growth in renewable production and climate smart energy solutions for our customers. We employ approximately 20,000 people and have operations mainly in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK. Vattenfall is owned by the Swedish state. For more information: www.corporate.vattenfall.com

Decentralised Energy Trading Association

DETA (Decentralised Energy Trading Association) is a body that represents companies within the battery storage industry who want to trade energy more freely through the methods of demand-side response and load-shifting. Storage will be essential for the transition to a low-carbon economy, however, the way the system incentivises asset owners currently makes storage uneconomic at scale and is therefore preventing the development of the industry and hampering the UK’s carbon-reduction goals. DETA is working with the industry and regulators to change how these energy payment mechanisms function. By doing this, DETA aims to unlock storage as a financially-viable sector that can that can facilitate renewable energy to provide the majority of power on the grid.

Ginger Town

Ginger is a British-based micro e-mobility company seeking to make the UK a leader in future mobility innovation. We believe micro e-mobility will emerge to be the most significant part of the solution to the major urban transport challenges facing the UK today, including climate change, air quality, congestion, energy efficiency, and urban liveability.

SMS

SMS Plc has been at the heart of the UK energy market for 25 years and is today playing a critical role in transforming and decarbonising the UK energy system. Through its range of innovative solutions, SMS’ mission is to deliver the future of smart energy, working closely with private and public sector organisations – as well as the UK government – to achieve the country’s net-zero carbon target by 2050. As an independent energy services and smart metering company with low-carbon technology, data and sustainability at the core its business model, SMS Plc is leading the smart energy revolution in Britain, serving the industrial and commercial sector, and the wider domestic market to realise the environmental and financial benefits of smarter energy practice. SMS does this by delivering integrated metering, data, energy management and utility infrastructure services directly for large energy consumers and multi-site organisations, and also connects, owns, operates and maintains metering systems and databases on behalf of the UK’s energy suppliers.

Fully Charged

The Fully Charged Show is a YouTube channel dedicated to the future of energy and transport. Started in 2010 by actor, presenter and writer Robert Llewellyn, Fully Charged currently receives ~4-5 million monthly episode views and has a highly engaged, global audience of 1.9 million. The channel is perfectly positioned as the World’s no.1 consumer channel for clean energy and electric vehicles. Sales of these technologies are set to surge, to many times their current volumes, in the coming decade.

Loughborough University

Loughborough University has been conducting research on the transport sector for the past 50 years and has a track record of delivering projects in automotive propulsion, system control and operation, road safety, and transport sustainability. As the sector moves into a period of rapid change with the emergence of new technologies and changes in social preferences for mobility, there is a clear need for research activity which focuses on the factors facilitating a shift to a more sustainable future. Loughborough University is well positioned to deliver such research due to its diverse set of research groups and extensive partner network.

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