Check Out Our
Frequently Asked Questions
Charging Your Electric Vehicle
Can I Charge My Car At Home?
You can buy a home charging point as this offers the best solution for charging your electric vehicle at home. It offers a faster and safer solution to charging your battery and offers the flexibility of charging your car battery overnight. You can use a standard 3-pin plug with an EVSE cable (electric vehicle supply equipment) to charge your car but this is not recommended as a permanent solution, this should be only used when no other option is available.
How Long Does It Take To Charge An Electric Car?
This all depends on the size of the battery and the speed of the charging point. Charging can take anywhere between 30-minutes and 12-hours. A typical electric car with a 60kWh battery would take 8-hours to fully charge the car’s battery from empty to full when using a 7kWh charging point. The majority of electric car drivers never charge their battery from empty. They normally top up the batteries' power regularly which would speed up the charging process. This would mean hooking up the battery through the day when parked at work or a shopping centre or charging your car overnight. The majority of electric cars can be charged within 35-minutes with a 50kWh charging point to provide a range of up to 100-miles. As you can see, the bigger the battery and the slower the charging point is that you are using. The longer it will take to charge your car’s battery.
Driving Your Electric Vehicle
How Much Does A Journey In An EV Typically Cost?
This varies depending on the vehicle you drive, but in simple terms, the size of the battery (kWh) x electricity cost of your supplier (pence per kilowatt-hour) = cost to charge an electric car from empty to full.
How Far Can An EV Go On A Single Charge?
This varies and really depends on the vehicle you’re driving, how you drive it and the conditions you’re driving it in – just like a petrol or diesel vehicle. The distance a single charge can cover is increasing with every new model, as battery technology improves. Today, most electric cars will have a range of over 200 miles. Tesla models can go well over 300 miles on a single charge. There are many new electric cars in the automotive market in the UK, every year a new car brand will launch a brand new model or an updated model. Car manufacturers are constantly working on solving the issue of battery range. In the current electric car market, there are the following cars that are ranked by the longest range. Tesla Model S - 375-miles Tesla Model 3 - 348-miles Tesla Model X - 315-miles Jaguar I-Pace - 292-miles Kia eNiro - 282-miles Mercedes EQ C - 280-miles Hyundai Kona EV-279-miles Audi e-Tron - 249-miles Nissan LEAF e+ - 239-miles BMW i3 - 193-miles Renault Zoe - 186-miles Hyundai Ioniq - 174-miles
Finance & Costs
How Much Does It Cost To Charge An EV At Home?
EV charging costs vary from model to model as different battery sizes affect how much energy is used. Expect a cost per charge at home to cost around £5 for an EV, and less than £2 for a PHEV.
What Is The Cost Of An EV Charger?
The cost of a charger (and installation) varies, depending on the unit’s features and where the charger’s installed. At WePowerYourCar, we give you a competitive fixed price for this. You can get £350 towards the purchase and installation of your home charger with an OLEV grant. Once installed, you only pay for the electricity you use to charge. When it comes to running costs, the typical electricity rate in the UK is about 14p per kWh. With Economy 7 tariffs, the typical overnight electricity rate in the UK drops to 8p per kWh. With most chargers letting you schedule your charge times, it’s easy to take advantage of these cheaper electricity tariffs at night.
Savings & Grants
Am I Entitled To An Electric Car Grant?
From 1st April 2020, electric car drivers get a £350 grant towards purchasing and installing a home EV charger – this is an OLEV grant. The UK Government provides financial support through the Electric Vehicle HomeCharge Scheme (EVHS). What’s even better is that we can help sort this for you, making your home EV charger installation even easier. Additional information on the EVHS can be found here.
Are There Any Grants Available For Home EV Charging?
There is an OLEV Grant (office for law emission vehicle) is available for home charging solutions. The grant's name is ‘Electric Vehicle Homecharging Scheme (EVHS), as the name suggests it’s to provide financial relief to the cost of adding a home charging point to your home. This grant currently provides up to £500 off of the cost of the purchase and the installation of a home charging point. You can claim for a 1-charging point per eligible vehicle but you are only allowed up to 2 eligible vehicles per household. If you live in Scotland your able to get access to an additional grant, this is up to another £300. This grant is available through the Energy Savings Trust Scotland.
The OLEV Grant
Do I Qualify For The OLEV Grant?
To qualify for the OLEV grant you need the following:
You must have off-street parking. Your EV must have been purchased on or after 1st October 2016. Your car must be eligible for the grant. You can find a full list of eligible vehicles here The charger must be OLEV approved. Your installation must be carried out by an OLEV approved installer. The date of installation should not be more than 4 months before the date of delivery of the car.
Find out more and see if you qualify.
What Is The OLEV Grant?
The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) is a grant that provides a 75% contribution to the cost of one chargepoint and its installation. A grant cap is set at £350 (including VAT) per installation. The main requirement is that a person owns, leases, or has ordered a qualifying vehicle and has dedicated off-street parking at their property. A person may apply for 2 chargepoints at the same property if they have 2 qualifying vehicles.
Find out more or contact your Power365 Engineer for more information
EV Charger Installation
How Long Does It Take To Install A Charger?
A standard installation typically takes around 2-3 hours to complete. However, the actual length of time will depend upon where you are having your chargepoint installed and whether any time-consuming work is required to route the cabling (for example underground) if you have a detached garage.
How Do I Get A New EV Charging Point Installed?
We would advise you to always enlist a professional to install your home charging point. The reason we give this advice is to install a level-2 charging point that uses 240 volts, you need the correct circuit breaker installed on your home’s circuit board. You will then need to run a newly installed 4-strand cable to your chosen charging location to connect to your charging pod. Please have a professional install your charging point at home.