As fuel costs rise uncontrollably and the government aims to phase-out petrol and diesel vehicles, the spotlight on Electric Vehicles has never been brighter! But how will you charge your new electric vehicle? And importantly, how much does a charger point cost to install?
It might be that you’ve just bought a new Electric Car/Electric Vehicle (EV), or you're close to placing an order and now you’re researching how you’ll charge your vehicle. The public EV charger network in the UK is expanding rapidly, but by far the cheapest and easiest way to charge an EV is at home, where possible.
Most new EV's come with a charge lead on a 3-pin plug. This is called Mode 2 charging. Mode 2 charging was never really designed for electric cars, more for mobility scooters and very small EV's. We wouldn’t recommend you use this as a long-term charging solution. They charge the vehicle slowly (around 12 miles of range per hour) but draw a high load from a socket for many hours, which can generate residual heat and degrade the socket outlet over time. They are safe, but not designed as a long-term EV charging solution.
To charge an EV at home, you need somewhere off the public road to park. This could be a drive, or a communal car parking area. We can then install a fast home charger (referred to as mode 3). These chargers add around 29 miles of range per hour, if you’re lucky enough to have a 3-phase power supply at home, chargers can achieve 44 miles per hour. The fast chargers also add a whole host of safety features and comply with the rules for home chargers set by the national grid network operators.
So how much does an EV charger cost to install?
Looking back at the last 5 jobs we’ve completed, the average cost to supply and install a home charger was £980 inc VAT (June 2022). Prices vary from job to job, depending on the difficulty of the installation and the earthing arrangement in the home. We install chargers from multiple brands, including; PodPoint, My Energi (Zappi), Project EV, Rolec and Tesla Wall Connector. We can also install other brands on request.
Which EV CHARGER should I choose?
There are a wide range of chargers available on the market and we are happy to advise on which one is the best for your needs. The choice of charger comes down to the additional features required, chargers like the Zappi for instance work really well for homes where solar PV is installed. The units can detect when power is being exported to the grid and will automatically start the car charging to absorb that energy.
If you don’t have a private driveway but do have an off road car park (flats or a small housing community, for instance) we can help with chargers there too. We can set up charge points and billing systems for where charge points are connected to communal power with an easy app and management portal. This is probably the subject of another blog, but we’ve recently partnered with Fuuse to offer these services for communal chargers for residential clients and businesses.
The future is definitely looking bright for Electric Vehicles. Please visit our EV webpage for more info or our Tesla Wall Connector page for that specific product. And we'd love to chat to you, please get in touch for a chat and quote for your project.
Trevor Rook
TVR ELECTRICAL SERVICES