Category Archives: Charging

Watford Council secures substantial grant for EV charging points

June 2, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Watford Council is pleased to announce that a grant of £592,500 has been successfully secured through the On-Street Residential Charge Point Scheme (ORCS).

The funding will enable the installation of 79 new electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the town, bringing the total number of locations to 112.

The 29 new charging columns will be installed on-street in a mix of 2/3/4 charge points per location, providing residents and visitors with more convenient access to EV charging facilities. This will significantly contribute to our efforts to become a net zero carbon town and promote sustainable transport in the borough.

Elected Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor, said: “I’m thrilled that we have secured this funding. It will help us expand our EV charging infrastructure, making it easier for people to use of electric vehicles. The council is committed reducing carbon emissions in the borough through a range of initiatives.

Thousands of people already drive electric vehicles in Watford and we know that these reduce pollution and improve air quality locally. It’s important that we have the charging infrastructure needed to support this, so I want to thank the team that worked so hard to secure this grant funding. It will make a real difference.”

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Electric dream? What it’s really like to drive 285 miles to The Lakes in a leccy car

June 1, 2023Away From Home, Charge Your Car, ChargePoint Services / GeniePoint, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

With its rugged landscape, winding country lanes and laidback lifestyle, you wouldn’t necessarily put The Lake District down as being an electrifying hotspot.

However, the folks at BMW have teamed up with 15 UK National Parks – including The Lakes – as part of a three-year initiative called Recharge in Nature, which aims to install electric vehicle (EV) charging points at some of our best-loved beauty spots.

It’s a wise move. With sustainable tourism and off-grid adventures being big business these days, eco-friendly destinations are becoming a must-have on our in our holiday tick list. (Not to mention the boom in staycations due to the pandemic and cost of living crisis.)

Being England’s largest and most visited National Park, The Lakes are the first to be kitted out with charging points in three locations, Windermere and Ambleside, Hawkshead and Coniston.

But just how well will this eco-conscious initiative work in reality?

To find out I was loaned the newly launched fully-electric BMW iX1 and told to head to the Langdale Hotel just outside Ambleside – a mere 285 miles away from my Essex home.

Advised that the car had a range of between 259 and 270 miles on a single charge, and able to recharge up to 80% of the range in less than half an hour, it looked like we’d need just one pit stop along the way, so we were more than excited to jump in our fancy new wheels and head towards the M6.

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38% of UK drivers rate their understanding of Electric Vehicles as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’

May 30, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, PeugeotRepost

New research conducted by Peugeot UK has revealed that less than a quarter of UK drivers say they have a good understanding of electric vehicles.

The survey of 2,000 UK motorists found that only 23% thought their understanding of electric vehicles was ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, while 38% described their knowledge as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Peugeot e-2008 electric SUV (Image: Peugeot)

Amazingly, less than half of those spoken to were aware that battery electric vehicles emit zero emissions while 12% also thought that plug-in hybrid cars and electric cars are exactly the same type of vehicle.

Perhaps less surprisingly, when asked about the EV charging network, 70% of respondents said they found the way different providers operate to be confusing.

The same percentage also said they found the language surrounding electric vehicle power, battery capacity and efficiency difficult to understand, with only 31% aware that Kilowatt Hours (kWh) is the unit used to measure battery capacity in EVs.

A generation gap comes into play here as 46% of 18-24-year-olds correctly selected ‘Miles per kWh’ as the unit commonly used to measure efficiency in electric vehicles, compared to just 20% of the over 65s.

Of the former group, 58% rated their knowledge as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ while, half of those over 65 admitted that their knowledge was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

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Busting EV myths – Breaking down the biggest misconceptions surrounding EVs

May 25, 2023Away From Home, Buying/Leasing, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, FAQ, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

Despite the expected shift towards electric and zero emission vehicles, there’s still a lot of controversy surrounding them. Are they really any cheaper to run? What’s their true environmental impact? In this article, Simone Bruckner, managing director of resistor manufacturer Cressall, breaks down the biggest myths surrounding electric vehicles (EVs).

With more than a quarter of a million new electric car registrations last year, uptake of EVs is definitely on the increase. More than one in five of us expect to be driving an EV within the next five-to-ten years. But there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding EVs that keep potential buyers on the fence.

EV’s have insufficient range

Many potential buyers are concerned about EV range. Their concern is well-founded in part, with the Nissan Leaf’s lowest range sitting at just 73 miles back when it was launched in 2011.

Thankfully, EV technology has improved in leaps and bounds since then, and most EVs now sit comfortably within the 200-to-300-mile range mark. And these figures aren’t restricted to high-end models either, with models like Hyundai’s Kona and Kia’s e-Niro entering the market at around £35,000 and offering modest real-world ranges of around 250 miles according to Autocar.

99 per cent of car journeys in England are less than 100 miles, and the average length of a trip was less than ten miles pre-pandemic. Based on these numbers, EVs have a perfectly sufficient range for the vast majority of travel.

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A California bill could help make EVs a blackout solution

May 23, 2023At Home, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The state might require every electric vehicle to be capable of powering your home — and the grid — through a process called bidirectional charging.

Chris Bowe was preparing for his daughter’s ninth birthday party in February when a drenching storm knocked out power to his neighborhood in Hayward, California. Minutes before the party began, Bowe connected his electric Ford F-150 Lightning to a panel in his garage, sending electricity from the pickup truck to his house.

“It was dark out, parents were dropping off their kids, and our house was lit up,” said Bowe, who works as a FedEx manager in the Bay Area. “They were like, ‘How do you have power?’”

Bowe kept the lights on using bidirectional charging, which allows electric vehicles to not only receive electricity but discharge it as well. It’s a feature that a proposed California bill would require that all EVs sold in the state offer by model year 2027.

Making an EV bidirectional capable is a matter of equipping it with the right software and hardware, and some, like the Nissan Leaf, Kia EV 6, and the Lightning, already provide the feature. Other manufacturers have been slower to roll out the technology. Tesla, for example, says its cars will be bidirectional by 2025.

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EV charging points increase by 8% in first quarter of 2023

May 22, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The UK government has published new Electric Vehicle (EV) charging point statistics showing the number of installed devices increased by 8% in the first three months of 2023.

As of 1 April, there were 40,150 public electric vehicle charging devices installed in the UK, while the total installed devices increased by 3,095, an increase of 8%.

“Since 1 April 2022 the number of installed public devices has increased by 9,860, a 33% increase,” the government said. “The number of rapid charging or above devices increased by 39%, an additional 2,153 public devices installed.

Of the installed devices, “7,647 were rated “rapid” devices or above, this represents 19% of all charging devices”, while “22,338 were rated “fast” chargers, this represents 56% of all charging devices”.

In terms of location, 19,044 charging points were designated as “destination” chargers (47% of all devices), while 13,571 were “on-street” chargers (34%).

Since 1 January 2023, total installed charging points increased by 3,095 (8%), with rapid charging devices increasing by 760 (11%).

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EVs and the grid—it’s all about give and take

May 18, 2023Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

There is no disputing that we need more flexibility within the grid in the UK, and across countries globally, if we’re to accommodate an influx of new energy resources. Large volumes of renewables are and will continue to feed in, while increased demand from the electrification of transport and heat continue to cause strain during peak times. In the UK, although there is flexibility within the grid, the nation’s energy regulator Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) has recently proposed to create an energy marketplace that aims to address the challenge of how we unlock value from assets that are connected to our distribution networks.

Using electric vehicles (EVs) as an example, there is a huge long-term potential for both give and take on the grid. Advancements in smart charging will transform the way that EV users charge their vehicles, opting to take from the grid at times that suit the grid’s capacity—offering the potential to avoid peak times and essentially manage the ‘surplus’ energy that exists within our systems at other times of the day—and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is offering drivers a way to feed power back into the grid in times of a supply deficit by discharging back into the grid to plug supply shortfalls.

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ChargeUK established to double the size of UK EV charging network in 2023

May 16, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

ChargeUK, a new trade association which launched today (28 April), is aiming to invest £6 billion by 2030 in EV charging and double the size of the UK EV charging network in 2023.

The association, which brings together 18 EV charging companies, will look to increase the availability of charging in addition to accelerating investment and delivery. This will be achieved via collaboration with government and other stakeholders to break down barriers and shape policies and regulation.

Founding members of the organisation include: Be.EV, Believe, bp pulse, char.gy, ChargePoint, Connected Kerb, ESB, evyve, Fastned, Genie Point, Gridserve, Ionity, Mer, Osprey, Pod Point, PoGo Charge, RAW Charging and Shell Recharge.

“The formation of ChargeUK is an exciting day and is a demonstration of the EV charging industry’s growing size and importance to the UK economy,” said Ian Johnston, chair of ChargeUK and CEO of Osprey Charging Network.

“Together we are investing billions of pounds to get more charge points in the ground right across the country. These numbers reinforce our commitment to the UK’s net zero future. We will continue to be a proactive partner to government as we deliver a world-class charging infrastructure, giving the nation’s drivers confidence to transition to EVs.”

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Thousands Of EV Charge Points To Be Installed Across London

April 20, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

To aid in London’s transition to a net-zero carbon metropolis by the year 2030, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and the London Councils have announced the installation of thousands more electric vehicle charge points in all 32 boroughs and the city of London.

A third of the UK’s total electric charge points are located in London, which has about 13,000 of them now. Since 2019, this number has increased by more than 200 percent. As part of the Mayor’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, London’s goal of having 40,000–60,000 charge points by 2030 will be achieved with the support of £35.7 million in capital funding from the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund. Officers tasked with assisting the installation of charging points throughout the boroughs will be funded with an additional £3 million in capability funding.

The new public charge points will be distributed fairly by the mayor, London Councils, Transport for London, and London boroughs, who will also make sure that the charge points are installed to meet the needs of local communities, with a focus on assisting those who do not have access to off-street parking. Also, the funding will be utilized to facilitate cross-borough collaboration on the delivery and procurement of charging points.

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How much does charging an electric car cost? Is it cheaper than petrol?

April 18, 2023Charging, Charging, Cost of ownership, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Your electric car charging costs are simple to calculate. Here’s how to work it out

There are plenty of reasons for going electric: that pesky CO2 stuff, for one thing. But there’s another incentive for making the switch other than doing your bit for the polar bears: electric car charging costs.

You see, charging an electric car has been – historically, at least – cheaper than filling up with conventional fuel. And that means over the course of electric vehicle ownership, you could save yourself a lot of money in running costs. Really.

There are, of course, a couple of important caveats: to make the numbers work, you will need to do the majority of your charging at home. This is where electricity is most affordable (even with energy costs ballooning) and some tariffs will allow you to make the most of cheaper overnight rates when demand is low.

Public charging points – including the so-called ‘rapid’ chargers popping up at motorway service stations – tend to be a lot more expensive. And while they’re a godsend for topping up quickly on a long journey, you will be paying for the privilege. So much so that the price per mile of driving might not be that much different to that of a petrol or diesel car. Boo! Hiss!

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