BT Group’s first electric vehicle (EV) charging unit that’s been repurposed from an old green street cabinet will be powered up in East Lothian in the coming weeks.

The turning on of the Scottish charger will mark the first step in new UK-wide trials exploring the potential to upgrade up to 60,000 cabinets that have traditionally been used to store broadband and phone cabling.

The Group said that the pilots will explore how the solution could be scaled to tackle the current lack of EV chargers on UK roads — a concern for many potential buyers of electric vehicles.

With only 53,000 on-road charge points available, 60% of people think the country’s EV charging infrastructure is inadequate, BT Group’s research found, while 78% of current petrol and diesel drivers said not being able to easily charge an electric vehicle is a barrier to purchasing one.

The charging solution works by retrofitting street cabinets with a device that allows renewable energy to be shared to a charge point alongside the existing broadband service, with no need to create a new power connection.

The EV charging capabilities can be deployed to cabinets that are either already in-use for broadband services or those due for retirement, depending on the space and power available to the unit.

Once the cabinet is no longer needed for broadband as the UK-wide full fibre rollout progresses, the broadband equipment can be recycled and additional EV charge points added.

Facilitating the trials is, Etc., the startup and digital incubation arm at BT Group. It will scope a range of different technical, civil planning, operational, and commercial considerations for bringing the EV charge point network online.

Tom Guy, the managing director of BT Group’s Etc., said: “Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing.

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“Working closely with local councils in Scotland and more widely across the UK, we are at a critical stage of our journey in tackling a very real customer problem that sits at the heart of our wider purpose to connect for good,” Guy continued.

“This is a key step in our mission to build products and services right now that work for the future, with positive transformation at the heart.”

The initiative has been named as an Innovation Honoree for 2024 in outstanding design and engineering at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the U.S.-based annual trade show where new technologies and products are presented.