The aim of the project is to increase awareness for businesses of the potential economic benefit of installing car charging points in Gwynedd by running a 12 month pilot.

The Gwynedd Local Development Strategy identified the potential of electric vehicles in the region. In order to explore the opportunities, AGW will be installing charging points in 5 businesses in Meirionnydd. The aim is to increase local awareness, gather valuable data from businesses and electric car owners, and share good practice across Gwynedd and beyond.

The last three years have seen a remarkable increase in the number electric vehicles on UK roads. New registrations of “plug-in cars” increased from 3,500 in 2013 to more than 43,000 by the end of September 2015. Arloesi Gwynedd Wledig wanted to gauge demand for car charging points in Gwynedd and decided to run pilot programme to monitor their usage over a 12 month period. At the same time these new charging points will be registered on Zapmap and raise the area’s profile.

The project is ongoing and the at the end of the 12 months we will be in a position to determine whether doing so has contributed to an increase in visitor numbers, and awareness of the area as a tourist destination. We decided to pilot the programme in Meirionydd because of its rural nature, and following research it is believed that at the time, Meironydd only had three active charging points covering the whole geographical area.

Locations of the pilot sites were determined through a “call to action”, whereby businesses applied to be one of the test locations, and were then assessed against a number of different parameters such as, location, accessibility, current visitor numbers etc. The locations are as follows:

• Corris Caverns, Corris
• Fferm Hendy, Tywyn
• Byrdir Self Catering, Dyffryn Ardudwy
• Bythynnod Gelli Goch, Trawsfynydd
• Railway Cottage, Y Bala

Each of the selected destinations is required to ask every user to log their usage, their address and why they selected this particular destination. Each of the business owners were also provided with training and have become car charging ambassadors for the area. A series of 3 films have been produced following a journey through the area in an electric car.