South West College and CENEX launch electric vehicle strategy toolkit for local authorities

As part of its continuing work on the FASTER Project, South West College has announced a new partnership with Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies to provide partner councils with access to Cenex’ proprietary National EV Insights and Support platform (NEVIS) to assist with the development of their fleet electrification strategies.

The FASTER Project has received €6.4 million EU funding under the INTERREG VA programme. The project is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) to support the transition to electric vehicles and sustainable transport use across Western Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Border Region). Match funding for the project has been provided by the Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland) and the Department for Transport (Republic of Ireland) and Transport Scotland. 

In addition to making significant improvements to electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the three project areas, another of the key project deliverables is to provide knowledge and support for authorities tasked with delivering government mandates to increase the numbers of electric vehicles on roads across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

The toolkit provides a detailed repository of approved articles, guidance and template documents which support local authorities on their journey to net zero, from developing a strategy through to procurement and deployment of chargepoints.

The NEVIS platform is a culmination of Cenex’s 15-year experience in supporting councils with electric vehicle rollout and was initially developed with funding from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). It has been rolled out previously to councils across England and Wales, with over 300 organisations currently subscribed to the platform. This will be the first time that councils in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will be given access to the platform, which will be provided free of charge to the councils for a period of 12 months.

Donal Monaghan, FASTER Project and Sustainability Marketing Officer at South West College said:

“South West College is delighted to partner with CENEX on the roll out of the NEVIS platform to local authorities across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and West Coast of Scotland. Through the FASTER Project we have been working very closely with representatives from all those organisations and one of the major stumbling blocks to fleet electrification is the lack of council level strategies.

NEVIS will provide councils will the knowledge and resources needed to develop future-proof vehicle electrification and charging infrastructure plans and strategies. The outcomes of this partnership between CENEX and South West College will be an important legacy of the FASTER Project”

Andrew Benfield, Country Manager for Cenex said:

“Cenex is excited to help South West College and FASTER Project partner councils to develop effective and consistent local EV charging strategies, using our extensive knowledge gained over the last 15 years.”
Eligible councils in the project regions have taken in training on the use of the platform over the past few weeks. The initial outputs of this strategy support programme are expected to be delivered from mid-2024.

Further information on the FASTER Project is available here.