Can you get an electric car without a charging point at home?
You don't need to have a charging point at home to live with an electric vehicle - the other options for charging your electric car or van are expanding every day.
Without a charging station at home, you can power up your EV:
- At work, if your workplace provides chargers
- At some park-and-ride stations
- Using one of the UK’s tens of thousands of public charging stations
- By visiting a rapid charging hub at a service station
- By switching to a plug-in hybrid and charging in public where possible
Charging electric cars at work
Cars spend around 95% of their lives parked somewhere. If not at home, they’re usually parked at work. If your workplace provides charging points, you’ll have plenty of time to plug in your EV while you carry out your responsibilities.
If there’s no charging point at your workplace, talk to your employer. They could qualify for assistance installing chargers via the Workplace Charging Scheme.
A large part of today’s commute also involves park-and-ride schemes. If you drive to a bus or train station and do the rest of your route via public transport, there could be public charging stations located where you get your bus or train.
Charging electric cars in public
There are already tens of thousands of public charging points in the UK, with thousands more added every year. By comparison, there are only around 8,000 petrol stations. Use Zap Map to locate your nearest charging station.
Charging at a public station could work out more expensive than doing so at home. But it’s still likely to work out notably cheaper than petrol, adding to the lower long-term costs of running an EV.
Using rapid charging hubs
Rapid charging stations can be found at motorway service stations. They let you charge your EV fast, but are usually the most expensive way to do so. Depending on how you use your electric car or van, making a couple of weekly trips to use a rabid hub might still be cheaper than filling with petrol.
Do hybrid vehicles need charging points?
If you don’t have access to a home charging station, consider a plug-in hybrid. Plug-in hybrids can charge from public charging stations as well as with traditional fuel.
As the national charging point network expands, you’ll be able to slowly transition away from filling your hybrid with petrol and start charging it at your nearest convenient station.
Remember, the UK government is committed to phasing out the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Using a plug-in hybrid gets you ready to make the jump to a fully electric country.