Charging and You

Installing a charging point at your home is ideal if you have secure off-street parking and are able to have a wall charger installed. The Office for Zero Emissions Vehicle (OZEV) have a grant that provides up to 75% of the cost of installing a home charger, simply by answering a few questions and filling in a form. This scheme seems to be running indefinitely as the Government tries to encourage people to make the switch to electric.

The Work Charging Scheme (WCS) is for businesses to be able to add charging bays to the work premises. This will be advantageous if you have a larger business with a fleet of vans, vans can charge overnight and be ready to go in the morning. This scheme allows up to 40 charging point to be added and can cover up to 75% of the cost.

Electric vans are packed with the latest tech, and most now come with a sat nav app installed that will show you a map to the nearest charging point so that no matter where you are in the country you will always be able to find a place to charge. The app also tells you the types of charging point available and currently how much they are going to cost you to charge your van. This can vary across the country and also from different charge point providers; some even offer free charging for a limited amount of time. All of which is excellent in reducing range anxiety and helping you run your business smoothly.

With battery technology improving, the driving range on some small, medium and large vans is massively improved from when electric vans and cars were first introduced. Not only has the range improved so has the power that they can produce and the loads that they can carry. A medium-sized van like the Fiat E-doblo which has a range of 175 miles and a can travel up to 80 mph and has the ability to be fully charged in just 30 minutes; all while emitting zero emission. There really is no stopping an electric van.

Charging points are becoming more and more familiar to us as we travel from place to place, the government has pledge to ensure that there will be 15,000 rapid charge points and 100,000 street charge points installed by 2025.

If you don’t already have the app installed via your sat nav then there are a number of different apps that are available that will tell you where your nearest charging points are, who they are provided by and what they will charge per kWh. This price can vary, not just from provider to provider, but also depending on the time of day you are wanting to charge your van, peak time will cost more than off-peak.

With the most common charging cable being type 2 it is now easier to charge on the go, and with a lot more vans having rapid charge DC capabilities it means that charging is faster and affords less disruption to your day. It is worth pointing out that the cost of charging your van does also depend on the type of charging you do. There are different rates for peak and off-peak and if you use a slow overnight charger then the rate per kWh is lower than if you used a rapid charge point, however it is still more cost-effective than traditional fuel.

Here at MWVC our highly trained team are waiting for your call, and they will talk you through the whole process and are happy to answer any of your questions.