Electric Vehicle Charging Points

Remember the days when B&Bs went from having ‘hot and cold running water in each room’ signs and then had to upgrade to full private bathrooms because the market demanded it? And then WIFI became the must-have? At some point this will happen with EV charging points… 

The following is intended to provide some links and points to consider. It does not constitute direct advice*.

Considerations:

• Do you need to upgrade your electricity supply?
• Have you told your insurance company you plan to add EV charging points? Some companies are unhappy at the possibility of increased fire risk, even if this is reduced by approved installers
• Do you need planning permission? Not usually, but you might do if you have a listed building. More info    More info    
• Consider when you’ll charge EVs – you may be able to use cheaper night tariffs if you can install a smart meter. 

Installing EV chargers

There is some useful background information on this page.

If you use an approved installer, they should be able to also advise you on available grants and some will help you apply for them. There is a list of approved installers here  

Grants

Here is the link to the government grants for EV charging points which is available for workplaces. This scheme will be phased out by April. New details of the scheme to include holiday accommodation are due to come into effect in February, new government guidance has not yet been issued. A summary can be found here.  

Re-charging visitors

If you are planning to pass on EV charging costs to your visitors, please remember:

• EV charging points are likely to become a feature of accommodation in the same way that guests now expect free wifi.
• If you manage to get a grant to instal EV charging points, you may not be allowed to charge visitors for access.
• Obtaining units which require payment could prove to be more expensive as they’d be tied to a network, or they would need to be contactless. Some fact units don’t provide this functionality.

You can consider locking your EV charger (e.g. with a PIN number) and then sign up to an app which handles the payment automatically. There’s some info on this here.

More useful info on: Hubsta, PodPoint and BP Pulse.

Appearing on maps  

You may choose to appear on one of the EV map sites such as Zap Map, Carwow, or Plugshare. The most popular of these is currently Zap Map. Do consider the implications of the general public knowing they can charge their EV at your business.  

Bear in mind that if your charging unit is as a result of a grant, you may not be allowed to do this.

How Many EV Charging Points Are There in the UK? This Stats-Driven Guide includes some key statistics:

• There are over 27.5k charging devices in the UK. Since 2015, public charging devices have grown by 43% year-on-year.

• This growth is only going faster. In fact, the government has set ambitious targets of introducing 145k new charging points every year from 2030 onwards.

• However, not all charging points are created equal. In the UK,  56.7% of EV charging points are classed as fast, meaning they will fully charge a Tesla Model S in 5-11 hours.

• In October 2021, EVs held a 23.1% market share of all vehicles being registered in the UK - this is a sharp rise from April 2021, when the figure was just 13.3%.

• 22% of British drivers state that they are very likely to switch to electric vehicles in the future.

* Please note that this article is intended to suggest some points to consider and signpost to further information. You are advised to take specialist advice before installing electric vehicle charging points.