Tag: charging points

Top 20 fastest cities to charge your electric car

Rapid electric vehicle charging

With more than 480,000 pure electric cars and 390,000 plug-in hybrids on UK roads, public attention is increasingly turning to our electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

Admiral Car Insurance has teamed up with Zap-Map, the UK’s leading EV charge point mapping service, to shine a light on the towns and cities that are currently best served for the two quickest types of charging points, known as rapid and ultra-rapid chargers.

Unlike fossil fuel cars, EVs can recharge almost anywhere – at home, at work and on the public network. With extra flexibility for EVs comes a little added complexity, such as different speeds of chargers and, therefore, different uses for them.

EV drivers charging at home, for instance, typically use what are known as ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ devices to charge up overnight.

In contrast, rapid chargers take between 20 minutes to an hour to add around 100 miles of charge – and are found at many different locations from motorway service areas and fuel forecourts to restaurants, hotels and retail car parks.

Even speedier are ultra-rapid devices, which can around 100 miles of charge in as little as 15 minutes. Useful for drivers undertaking longer journeys, they tend to be found in groups of between six and ten. The analysis saw Birmingham come out on top in this respect, with 39 high-powered ultra-rapid chargers.

As the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars draws ever nearer, and the number of EV owners continues to rise, Admiral’s own data shows the growing popularity of electric vehicles, with drivers insuring 79% more pure electric vehicles (and 20% more hybrid vehicles) in 2022 compared with 2021.

Meanwhile, the number of rapid and ultra-rapid chargers has also shown promising growth in recent years. While there were just 973 rapid and ultra-rapid devices at the end of 2016, by the end of April 2022 the UK had over 5,750 rapid and ultra-rapid public chargers – more than a 490% increase.1

Particularly important for EV drivers undertaking longer journeys is the increase in the number of ultra-rapid devices over the past year. Between April 2021 and April 2022, the UK has seen a 74% increase in the number of ultra-rapid devices, the quickest available.

Top 20 fastest UK cities to charge your electric car

Town Rapid Ultra-Rapid Grand Total
Nottingham 92 30 122
Milton Keynes 100 6 106
Leeds 60 17 77
Birmingham 34 39 73
Coventry 71   71
Bristol 45 23 68
Manchester 36 26 62
Sheffield 48 9 57
Glasgow 46 6 52
Wolverhampton 26 23 49
Norwich 20 28 48
Dundee 36 8 44
Bradford 39   39
Exeter 10 27 37
Slough 7 29 36
Derby 20 14 34
Cardiff 24 10 34
Banbury 5 29 34
Preston 31 2 33
Newcastle upon Tyne 31 2 33

Soaring cost of rapid charging an EV

VW-e-Up-charging

The average price of charging an electric car on a pay-as-you go, non-subscription basis at a publicly accessible rapid charger in the UK has increased by 21% since September.

Figures analysed by the RAC’s new Charge Watch initiative in association with the national FairCharge campaign show the cost is now around 44.55p per kilowatt hour (kWh).

The 7.81p per kWh increase, from 36.74p at the end of last summer, means that the average cost to complete an 80% rapid charge of a typical family-sized electric car with a 64kWh battery has increased by £4 over this period, from £18.81 to £22.81 now.

In stark contrast, the cost of filling a 55-litre family car from empty to 80% has increased by a huge £14.54 since last September, from £59.67 to £74.21.

RAC EV charging cost comparison

The RAC’s analysis shows that it now costs on average 10p per mile to charge at a rapid charger, up from 8p per mile last September.

This is still nearly half the cost per mile compared to filling a petrol-powered family car, which has risen from 15p per mile since the end of last September to a staggering 19p per mile now. The cost per mile for a similarly sized diesel-powered car is even higher at nearly 21p

The average price of charging at the quickest ultra-rapid chargers – which have a power output of 100kW-plus and can deliver a charge to a compatible vehicle in as little as 20 minutes – has increased by a greater margin of 16.76p per kWh, from 34.21p per kWh in September to 50.97p in May.

This means the cost to charge a vehicle to 80% has risen from £17.51 to £26.10. This, however, is still £48 cheaper than filling a petrol-powered car to 80%, although electric car drivers do not get quite as many miles from an 80% charge as drivers of petrol cars do from an equivalent fill-up of a tank.

The price increases facing drivers of electric cars using publicly accessible chargers can be explained by the rises in the wholesale cost of electricity.

While the cost of charging a zero-emission electric car remains good value compared to topping up a petrol or diesel car, as things stand drivers who can’t charge up at home – which could be as many as one-in-three – are penalised by having to pay a higher rate of VAT on electricity than those who can, something the RAC-backed FairCharge campaign consistently points out. This risks putting off a huge number of drivers from switching to electric next time they change their vehicles.

The FairCharge campaign is therefore calling for the 20% VAT rate currently charged on electricity at public chargers to be cut to match the 5% levied on domestic electricity, thus making it an easier decision for those who cannot charge at home to switch to an electric car.

Doing so would see the cost of charging up at a rapid charger cut by 5.57p per kWh, and at an ultra-rapid charger by 6.37p. This would reduce the cost of an 80% charge by £2.85 and £3.26 on average at rapid and ultra-rapid chargers, respectively.