Publicly-accessible charging points for electric vehicles grew by 60% in 2019. This is the biggest increase in the past three years and actually surpassed the number of electric cars that were purchased in that year. EV numbers are expected to drastically increase over the next few years, and so the new publicly-accessible charging points aim to provide the infrastructure needed to support this. This is fantastic news, but we also need to consider if our homes are supporting the switch to electric.
The Department of Transport launched a public proposal in 2019 to ensure all new-build properties included charging infrastructure to further encourage the public to adopt electric alternatives. They estimated that the cost of one charging device per parking space would only add an additional £976 to building costs per charger. For those with older properties, the government offers an OLEV grant which gives drivers up to a £500 discount on the cost of buying and installing an EV charging device for their home.
The EV charging point manufacturer, Anderson, analysed the trend in their sales and have predicted that more than 350,000 driveways and garages across the UK will be fitted with EV chargers by 2025. These figures are supported by the estimate that one million EV will be registered on UK roads by 2025. One reason for this spike in interest in EV is thought to be the current pandemic in which we are experiencing the cleanest air we have had in decades. This realisation has led many people to rethink their car choices.
A huge incentive for at home charging points are the lower costs with motorists who charge their vehicles at home seeing savings of £1,000 per year compared to those who rely on public charging facilities. This saving is on top of the saving that comes with switching from petrol to electric.
The options for home charging installation include either a slow 3kW charger or the faster 7kW and 22kW chargers. To give you an idea of speed, the Nissan Leaf will be fully charged in around seven hours with the slow charger and around three hours with the 7kW fast charger. Normally, slow chargers have a domestic three pin plug, whereas the fast chargers have a seven pin plug attached to the charging cable in your car.
If we compare home chargers to public chargers, we can see that public chargers are a lot faster and they need to be in order to be convenient for drivers. The company Eloctricity provides the charging points for all motorway services in the UK and these “rapid” chargers can charge the Nissan Leaf to 80% within 45minutes. This would cost you £6. These rapid chargers have a plug of their own which attaches to your car and can output up to 50kW.
Manufacturers often quote the charging time to 80% rather than 100%. This seems odd but is due to the fact that not fully charging the car battery each time extends the battery life. Also, the last 20% takes much longer to charge relative to the first 80%.
We offer EV home and commercial charging points at extremely competitive prices with our lowest priced charger being a Project EV which is only £980 to supply and install. However, our most popular product is the EO Smart Mini Pro which costs £1222. If you as an individual or your business interested in purchasing a EV charger please contact us in 01412 280 8890 where one of our team would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Alternatively you could drop us an email at info@britetechnicalservices.co.uk.