For almost a generation now, the most used excuse for missing, or not returning a phone call has been, “Oh, sorry, my phone ran out of charge!” That being the case it may be reasonable to expect that if these same people are late in arriving at meetings or attending rendezvous to plead, “Sorry, I’m late. My car ran out of battery!” Normally a mobile phone, like an Electric Vehicle (EV) is charged up overnight, with the occasional top-up during the day, if usage is heavy. The problem with both of these is, that if you don’t plug them in, you don’t charge them up.

With a mobile phone, most of us have a selection of chargers lying around at home or at work and we just plug them into a wall socket. We can even charge our phones up in the car. So, where do we find a charger for our nice shiny, new, electric car?

To charge an electric car, in the UK there are four main places you can find a charger or charging point, as the industry has decided refer to them. You can re-charge the battery of an Electric Vehicle (EV), at home, at work, at some public locations, such as car parks, supermarkets or hotels and at service stations.

These charging points are designed to offer a range of options for charging an EV. As with a mobile phone, charging overnight makes sense, it is convenient, we charge both while we sleep and in the main it’s less expensive than other options, although it has to be said that many supermarkets and hotels, in particular, offer free top-up charging to attract customers, for the time being at least.

Work can be a good place to charge up your EV, if you can persuade your employer to have some charging points installed. The problem there is that as EVs become more popular and the numbers in your company car park increase, you may at some point find yourself in a race to the office to ensure you get one of the charge points.

Last, but by no means least, is the home charging point. It’s how we charge our mobile phones. We plug it in to the charger, go to bed and wake up to a fully charged, ready to use, mobile phone, so surely it must make sense to do the same with our EV, giving us a fully loaded vehicle every morning.

As with most things, the quality of the finished job is dependent on good preparation. Electric vehicles can like mobile phones, be plugged into a standard wall socket using an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) cable. However, it takes much longer to charge and a standard  3 pin wall socket does not have the required safety features of a dedicated charger and is therefore not to be recommended as best practice.

By far the safest and most practical solution to home charging is a dedicated home charging point. These deliver a much faster charge and incorporates a range of built-in safety features, making them safer for both the user and the property to which it will be attached to. They are fairly compact, waterproof units which would be fixed to a wall, convenient to where your EV would be parked. They are supplied with a connecting cable which will be compatible with your vehicle, or a connecting socket which will accept a portable connecting cable. Most EVs in the UK have either a Type 1 or a Type 2 connector so you need to be careful to choose a home charger which is compatible with your vehicle.

Having an electric car charging point installed in an apartment or block of flats is not so easy. The car park may not be adjacent to the property, or the land is not owned by the resident. This introduces certain challenges for management companies, landlords and residents. The cost to install the charging points is increased as the charging point may be remote from the property and to make matters worse, the Government grant scheme does not cover apartments or blocks of flats. Then comes issues such as, who pays for the installation and maintenance of the infrastructure? How does the electricity used in charging EVs get paid for? How is the charging point policed so that random use by non-residents does not occur.

As we all are aware, the UK Government is keen to promote an increase in the usage of EVs and one of the ways they have introduced to make the switch to an electric vehicle is to offer a grant to assist with the cost of fitting a dedicated home charging point under its Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS). The cost of purchasing and installing a charging point at home is around £800 and the grant is, at present 75% of the cost, up to a maximum of £350. The grant is issued by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and requires the installation to be carried out by an authorised installer. The installer will take some details from you and make the grant application on your behalf, they will then issue an invoice to you for the nett amount as the £350 grant will be paid directly to the installer.

In Scotland, the Energy Saving Trust will provide up to £250 further funding on top of this, with an additional £100 available in the most remote parts of Scotland.

Having bought or leased your electric vehicle and had a dedicated home charging point installed at your home, it is worth looking at your electricity supplier as some have tariffs specifically aimed at EV users. These offer lower tariffs at specific times, mostly at night time, when most users are charging their vehicles, although, it must be said that recent changes in energy prices may have an effect on these.

As with your mobile phone, you can charge your electric car at home as often as you need to, charging overnight and topping up during the day if necessary. By charging overnight, electric car drivers can take advantage of cheap night time electricity rates.

You don’t need to unplug once the battery is full, charging will stop automatically with a dedicated home charger. Many cars will allow you to set a top charging limit, at which charging will automatically stop, without the need to physically unplug the connection. You should always follow your manufacturer’s advice on charge limits to your car.

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