Heading
Close X
Menu
It wasn’t so long ago that an electric vehicle (EV) was a decidedly niche motoring option. Nowadays, almost every major car manufacturer produces EVs and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) – and those that don’t are scrambling to catch up.
Here at Birchwood Motor Group, we represent four important marques: Ford, KIA, and ŠKODA, each of which has produced EVs and HEVs – and indeed, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
An EV or a PHEV is fitted with a battery that requires external charging (HEVs are self-charging) – so, where and how can you charge such a car?
You can do so at home using a three-pin power supply; though the slowest option, it’s convenient for overnight charging. Alternatively, a dedicated domestic wallbox produces fast-charging results. Furthermore, businesses are increasingly embracing the electric revolution, which means many employees are provided with work-based charging solutions.
This leaves us with public charging points, of which there are more than 15,500 across the UK, incorporating 42,000-plus individual connectors.
Approximately 83 percent of public connectors are fast-charging and seven percent are rapid-charging, which means that around 10 percent are slow-charging.
For an up-to-date guide to public access points, please visit https://www.zap-map.com/live/ – and you can download the Zap-Map app for free from the App Store or Google Play.
Charging times will vary depending on the car you drive, the size of its battery and the method used. We’ll use the KIA EV6 as an example, with a zero percent-full battery which is charged to 100 per cent capacity:
In the aforementioned KIA EV6 charging scenarios, it will cost about £26 (slow and fast) and £35 (rapid).
You may have questions for your individual requirements, and our team of experts are on-hand to answer them via live chat, over the phone or at any of our showrooms.
