How to charge an EV
How to charge, where to charge and the types of chargers
How to charge when you're on the go
In London in December 2022, there were 650 petrol stations, vs 14,360 charging points for EV's (as of July 2023).
London actually is the city with most EV charging points in Europe.
They really are all over London and the charging network is growing every day.
How to find an EV charging point
Zap Map is the leading App which shows all Electric Vehicle charging points, anywhere you are. It shows you all of the charge points near you, how powerful they are and if they are currently available.
Most Ride-Hailing drivers should ideally charge their EVs overnight at/near their home so charging on the go should mainly be to top up your range. The slower chargers (especially lamp post chargers from the likes of Ubitricity) are generally the cheapest way to charge.
What are the different types of EV chargers?
There are 4 main types of chargers; 3-pin home chargers, home pods, public slow chargers and rapid chargers. On Zap Map all rapid chargers are pink, fast chargers are blue and slow chargers are yellow.
Home 3-pin charging
This method of charging plugs directly in to the mains in your house using a 3-pin socket.
This is the slowest way to charge, so we recommend you only use this if you need to top up your battery.
Power: 2 kWh
Time to charge:
up to 30 hours
Home charging point
If you have a driveway at home, we would highly recommend you get in touch with your electricity provider and get a home charging point.
It's the easiest way to charge your vehicle and it’s the cheapest too.
Time to charge:
up to 10 hours
Power:
3-22 kWh
Public slow charging
We recommend you use this overnight as it's the cheapest option after the home charging point if you haven't got one.
With the slow charging points you have to use the type 2 charging cable that is in the boot of your electric vehicle.
Power:
3-22 kWh
Time to charge:
up to 10 hours
Rapid Chargers
Using public rapid chargers is the fastest way to charge. The charging points always come with the cable (CCS) already attached.
You shouldn't exceed 80% charge because to go from 80 to 100 takes a long time and you'd be wasting money.
We recommend not using rapid more than 1-2 times a week as they can damage your battery health.
Time to charge:
25-45 minutes
Power:
22-150+ kWh
