Electric vehicle charging – Herefordshire Council

Electric vehicle charge points

For journeys that cannot be made by walking, cycling or by using public transport, we want to encourage Herefordshire residents to use electric vehicles.

Herefordshire has seen a growth in demand for electric vehicle (EV) charge point infrastructure over the last few years. Herefordshire Council has an important role to play as a facilitator in meeting this demand, and has a responsibility to its residents to contribute to the move to zero emissions vehicles.

Latest updates

We have awarded the contract for delivery of on-street charge points across the county, and expect installs to begin later this year.

In May 2024, we adopted our new electric vehicle strategy for Herefordshire. The strategy seeks to address current barriers while supporting the widespread transition to electric vehicle.

EV drivers group

We have an EV drivers email group. To join please email energy@herefordshire.gov.uk, put EV Drivers Group in the title and give your consent to opt in.
Privacy notice for electric vehicle drivers.

The advantages of driving an EV

Choosing an electric car can help you save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

While the benefits to local air quality from eliminating exhaust emissions are clear, generating power to recharge batteries does displace emissions from the vehicle to power generation elsewhere. This is still much better in terms of air quality and CO2 emissions than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine and will only get cleaner over time as the UK electricity supply moves towards being zero emission. Over its lifetime, a typical EV emits around two-thirds less greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent petrol car, even accounting for battery production and disposal.

In many cases, an EV is cheaper to run than a petrol or diesel car, with lower maintenance and repair costs. Charging at home costs around 8p per mile while a diesel or petrol vehicle can cost around 13p to 17p per mile to fuel, as of January 2024. It is predicted that someone buying a new EV next year will recoup the additional upfront cost within 5 years due to lower running costs.

Not everyone is ready to make the switch to an EV, however, don't let the misinformation that is out there sway you. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles released a leaflet addressing the common misconceptions about electric vehicles - a particularly useful read if you are starting to think about switching to electric.

The different types of EV chargepoints

Chargepoints are categorised by power rating. There are four main types of chargers available: slow, fast, rapid and ultra-rapid chargers. They are used in different settings, depending on how long a vehicle is likely to be parked up.

Slow chargers are designed to refuel a car over several hours such as overnight and tend to be in more residential locations, whereas fast chargers tend to be used at locations where people may spend about an hour or two, like a town centre car park. Rapid chargers are often used where people want to refuel as quickly as possible.

Slow can usually achieve a full charge in under 8 hours, fast chargers will charge a typical EV in approximately 3 hours, and rapid units are typically able to charge an EV to 80% in 20-40 minutes.

Ultra-rapid DC chargers provide power at 100 kW or more. For those EVs capable of accepting 100 kW or more, charging times are kept down to 20-30 minutes for a typical charge, even for models with a large battery capacity.

How much it costs to charge an EV

To fully charge an electric car at home it typically costs around £6. To charge an EV to 80% at a public rapid charger it usually costs between £7 and £10. This varies depending on the location, tariff, energy cost, battery capacity, charging speed and charge level.

However, charging an EV far undercuts fuel costs for a petrol or diesel car. According to the Zapmap Price Index, the weighted average price to charge an electric car on the public charging network in April 2024 was 57p/kWh on slow/fast chargers and 80p/kWh for rapid/ultra-rapid chargers.

How to find your nearest charge point

Charge point providers will have their own live maps showing locations, real time availability information, tariff and connector type. Please see the Wenea live map and the SWARCO Econnect live map for chargers installed in council car parks. You will find more information on our electric vehicle charging locations page.

If travelling further afield, companies such as Zapmap have a UK-wide map of electric car charging points that helps electric car drivers locate and navigate to their nearest EV charging point.

Providing more charge points in Herefordshire

At present, through a concession contract with charge point operator Wenea, we are identifying sites across our managed car parks for additional charge points to be installed including rapid and ultra-rapid chargers.

The private sector will contribute significantly to the number of charge points being installed, including through off-street destination charging such as those in supermarket car parks, forecourt charging and rapid charging at motorway services.

FOI requests about electric vehicle charge points

We receive a number of Freedom of Information requests about electric vehicle charge points. Before submitting a request you may find the answers in our general information about electric vehicle charge points.