South Oxfordshire District Council’s installation of Electric Vehicle chargers at its car parks has seen charging volumes triple in its first full six months.
In June last year 62 EV chargers were installed across five of the council’s car parks in Henley, Wallingford and Thame as part of the Park and Charge scheme.
The number of charging sessions has doubled since the chargers were first installed. During the same period the average amount of electricity consumed has tripled, meaning that people are now using them for longer charges.
Since the first chargers went live in summer 2022 there have been 8,042 charging sessions in the first full six months, which equates to around 330,000 EV miles. This represents a saving of 90,397kg of CO2e* if those miles had been driven in a petrol or diesel car.
Saturday is the most popular day of the week to charge an EV in South Oxfordshire and 11am is the most popular time of day to charge.
Judging by the feedback, EV owners who have used the chargers seem pleased with the council’s offering at its car parks.
“Brilliant new chargers, simple to use and reasonable price too.”
“12 chargers all working – why can’t all car parks be like this?”
“Just did a little lunchtime charge while doing my shopping.”
Cllr Sue Cooper, South Oxfordshire District Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Climate Change and Nature Recovery said: “We are pleased that there has been such good take up of the EV chargers in our car parks. Moving forward we’re looking at more EV chargers across the district as well as the possibility of EV car clubs based at some of our car parks.”
A spokesperson from EZ Charge said: “As the market for EVs evolves, EZ Charge is innovating along the way with improved software and hardware to enable all EV users to have the best possible experience. We are listening to customer feedback and working closely with our Local Authority colleagues to provide the optimum solution for both private and public sector. Park and Charge is a highly successful project that we can all be very proud of.”
Notes
*Carbon dioxide equivalent – a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints which consist of lots of different greenhouse gases. It expresses the impact of each different greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide which would result in the same amount of warming. (see our A-Z of climate action terms)
The figures are for 6 July 2022 to 6 January 2023 from E-Z Charge which installed and manages the EV chargers as part of the Park and Charge Scheme. The scheme installed a total of 250 charging points in 20 council-run car parks in Oxfordshire between May 2021 and November 2022.
The Park and Charge project is a key part of the Oxfordshire Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, which was named Public Sector Infrastructure Strategy of the Year at the 2022 Electric Vehicle Innovation & Excellence Awards (EVIEs).
The £5.4 million project was funded by grants from Innovate UK and the Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles as well as private investment from local companies Zeta and Urban Integrated.
More details on how to use the chargers and the Park and Charge scheme are available at www.parkandchargeoxfordshire.co.uk.
More information about buying an EV see Climate Action Oxfordshire website.
There are more details about car clubs on our website.
