The goal of London Mayor Boris Johnson to establish the city as the European electric vehicle capital has received a timely boost after £17 million in funding being made available for the programme’s infrastructure.

The financial impetus will go towards making a network of some 7,500 charge points across the city over the next three years, will completion date set for 2012. The next 12 months will see the installation of 1,600 new charging points.

The Department for Transport will comprise £9.3 million according to yesterday’s announcement, which will complement the already ledged contributions from several leading organisations of £7.6 million in addition to the £5.6 million already provided from Transport for London. The cash injections will directly fund the thousands of electric charging points that have been promised fo delivery under Mayor Johnson’s stewardship. The long-term goal is to have every London resident within one mile of one of the charge points wherever they are, with a total of 25,000 charging points ordered by 2015. The network hopes to provide support for tens of thousands of electric vehicles in time, with authorities aiming to have 100,000 electric vehicles on the streets as soon as possible.

The 7,500 new charge points are predicted to offer 6,000 locations, predominantly places of work. The rest of the total will be made up of 50 at tube stations, 120 for car clubs, 140 for supermarkets, 330 for public car parks and 500 on the streets.