Citygate

Charging your electric vehicle at home is one of the easiest and cheapest charging solutions but as with all new technology, most people have a few questions.

How do I charge my electric vehicle at home?

To charge your electric vehicle at home you will need to have a home charging unit installed, preferably in your garage, your driveway or where you regularly park it. These units are wall-mounted, weatherproof and typically available with a Type 1 or Type 2 cable which can be plugged into the car or a Type 2 socket to use with the vehicle's existing charging cable.

Some electric chargers can even be connected to your Wi-Fi so you can check energy usage, charging battery and control charging times from anywhere.

The installation of an electric vehicle charging point should always be done by a professional, we would be more than happy to recommend reliable companies to do this so please get in touch if you have any questions.

How fast will my vehicle charge at home?

This depends on the size of the vehicle's battery and the charger. Most home units have a 3.7kW or 7kW charging power which would take about 11 or 6 hours respectively to charge a 40kWh battery. Most people will only top-up their vehicles charge rather than charging the battery from empty by plugging it in overnight, this is also when electricity rates are the cheapest. 

How much does it cost to charge my vehicle at home?

Again the price varies depending on the brand and power but you can purchase and install a home charging point for as little as £450 if you take advantage of the governments OLEV grant which provides £350 per electric vehicle towards this cost, with a maximum of two grants per household. You will only qualify if you have off-street parking and use an OLEV approved unit and installer.

The average UK energy cost is 14p per kWh so the full charge of a 40Kwh battery would total about £5.60 but charging at off-peak times such as overnight is significantly cheaper.