Construction company Balfour Beatty has announced its entry into the on-street EV charging market with the formation of Urban Fox – a partnership with Urban Electric Networks, a British EV charge point operator.

Balfour Beatty hopes to build on the company’s experience and longstanding relationships with local authorities and help them meet targets for chargers by funding, building, operating and maintaining a range of fast, rapid and slow points.

The company has revealed the new ‘pop-up’ 7kW on-street charge point it intends to roll out. Installed into the pavement, the unit is fully retractable underground leaving pavements clear and accessible when not in use.

Urban Fox’s quick installation and replacement process allows additional chargepoints to be easily installed as demand dictates.

The launch of Urban Fox follows five years of development and testing of the retractable charging unit across Oxford, Dundee and Plymouth City Councils, as well as Staffordshire County Council. The pilots indicated that Urban Fox’s unique retractable chargers can be installed in around 80% of streets.

Mark Flynn Convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee said: “Last year when we commissioned these on street residential chargers through a combination of funding, including local and Scottish Government, we wanted to start breaking down some of the barriers to owning and running an electric vehicle. In particular, recognising that more than half of the city’s homes don’t have access to off street parking by putting these chargers at seven locations spread across the Maryfield, Lochee and West End wards we are making a start.”

The Urban Fox chargers disappear into the pavement when not in use