Vale of White Horse District Council’s installation of Electric Vehicle chargers at its car parks has seen charging volumes double in its first six months. In June last year 62 EV chargers were installed across five of the council’s car parks in Abingdon, Faringdon and Wantage as part of the county-wide Park and Charge scheme.
The number of charging sessions has gone up by 60 per cent in the first six months of installation. During the same period the average amount of electricity consumed has doubled, meaning that people are now using them for longer charges. Since the first chargers went live in summer 2022 there have been 3,631 charging sessions in the first full six months, which equates to around 169,000 EV miles. This represents a saving 45,863kg 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 Vale of White Horse and 4pm is the most popular time of day to charge. As one happy customer said about their visit to West St Helens car park in Abingdon: “Successful charge. Simplicity itself.”
Councillor Sally Povolotsky, Vale of White Horse District Council Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Environment, said: “There has been good feedback from EV users which is borne out by the fact that usage has grown so much in the first six months. Now as EV ownership grows in Oxfordshire, we are looking at plans for more chargers across the district.”
A spokesperson for EZ Charge said: “It is essential that as the market develops that users have confidence in reliability and usability. We also aim to offer more powerful charging and more locations in Oxfordshire soon. 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.
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.
Communications
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils
01235 422400