Like most organisations, the UK’s National Parks (NPs) are on their own journey to Net Zero but the vast majority of journeys in NPs (by people who live, work and visit) are in petrol or diesel vehicles. Even among the 2.3m Electric Vehicles (EV) already being driven in the UK, one in five EV drivers said they would not use it to visit a NP – largely due to uncertainty around where they would charge.
BMW UK, as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of EVs, teamed up with National Parks Partnerships at the end of 2022 to address this – developing the three-year The Recharge in Nature Project with the aim of installing charge-points in all 15 UK NPs. But the partnership does not stop there, committed to supporting sustainable National Parks, BMW UK is also funding innovative projects in all NPs designed to benefit nature and people. This includes funding much-needed sustainable transport and youth engagement initiatives together with nature recovery projects.
Just one year in, BMW UK has already installed new charge-points in five NPs, with Lake District NP seeing electric charging in some car parks double year-on-year; new staff employed and engagement with hundreds of school children in Dartmoor, and new habitats created providing a home for nature and protection against climate change in the South Downs. And this is just the beginning, with more projects being launched over the coming months for the next phase of the partnership and charging infrastructure continuing to be rolled out.
