There are now more than 30 000 charge points across the uk in over 11 000 locations that s more public places to charge than petrol stations with around 10 000 charge points added in 2019 alone.
Electric car charging socket.
Drivers usually choose a dedicated home charging point because it s faster and has built in safety features.
For most owners 90 95 of all electric car charging will be done at home either from a domestic power socket or more commonly with a specialist electric car charging point.
The wgs is a voucher based scheme that provides a contribution towards the up front costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle to the value of 300 per socket up to a maximum.
One of the more daunting perceived obstacles to driving a plug in electric car seems to be the need for a home charging station.
An electric vehicle charging station also called ev charging station electric recharging point charging point charge point electronic charging station ecs and electric vehicle supply equipment evse is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of plug in electric vehicles including electric cars neighborhood electric vehicles and plug in hybrids.
Charging from a domestic power socket is fine if you are borrowing a power socket when visiting a friend or when staying away from home at a hotel.
To charge an electric car at home you should have a home charging point installed where you park your electric car.
You can use an evse supply cable for a 3 pin plug socket as an occasional back up.
A dedicated electric car charging wallbox will communicate directly with the car which makes it safer than using a domestic socket.
If your work doesn t have an electric vehicle charge point installed it could take advantage of the government s workplace charging scheme wgs.
Level 1 or 120 volt.
The other drawback to a 3 pin socket is that there is no safety mechanism to keep the plug in the socket securely.
The charging cord that comes with every electric car has a conventional three prong plug that goes into any properly grounded wall socket with a connector for the car s.
For example using a 3 pin socket it can take anywhere from 7 hours to more than a day to fully charge an electric car depending on how big your battery is.
What s more with a smart wallbox you can take advantage of cheaper tariffs with the car charging when supply is high and demand is low.
A smart wallbox also allows you to control charging remotely.