Best Electronic Charging Point Providers
With the electric vehicle market on the rise, electronic charging point providers are becoming increasingly efficient with the services they are providing. Charging points are becoming more apparent everywhere you go, being available in supermarkets, town and city centres, as well as a large variety of petrol stations across the UK. As time moves on, you can expect to see even more electric vehicles and charging stations across the UK with the hope that electric vehicles will replace diesel and petrol cars entirely within the next 20 years.
For all of you EV lovers out there, we stumbled across an interesting article from autoexpress.co.uk, which highlights the best electronic car charging point providers throughout the UK. The providers are rated based upon charging costs, charging speed, ease of use, and reliability. But before we get into that, we thought it would be best to explain what exactly an electronic car charging point is.
What Is An Electronic Charging Point?
Electronic Car Charging Points, also known as charging stations, are specialist appliances created to provide power/electricity for electric vehicles. There are many different types of car charging points, some being commercial, and others private, used to power different kinds of batteries in electric vehicles. Whilst once they were fairly scarce, you can now find them all over the UK, and can even have one installed at home so that you can charge your vehicle overnight.
How Do You Know If An Electronic Car Charging Point Is Good?
The very best electronic car charging points tend to have quick charging times, they should also be simple to use, and shouldn’t cost a fortune. You may also find that if a charging point is too powerful, it may put unnecessary strain on the battery.
Here’s The List!
Below you will find the best electronic car charging point providers, as rated by auto express.
1. Tesla - 92.94%
As expected, EV pioneer Tesla takes the top of the list for the best electronic charging point. Not only is charging incredibly quick and simple to use, but it's also quite cheap as well. The Tesla Supercharger is a 480 volt DC socket made solely for Tesla vehicles and was first made available in 2012. The only drawback with the supercharger is the fact that it can only be used for Tesla vehicles.
If you own a Tesla, be sure to have a supercharger installed at your home.
2. Instavolt - 85.11%
Instavolt, headquartered out of Hampshire, is one of the largest electronic car charging point companies in the UK. You can find their charging stations in many locations throughout the country where they offer Chademo and CCS appliances. They have taken 2nd place on the list due to the fact that they are powerful, quick, and easy to use, but are one of the most expensive in terms of charging costs.
3. Chargeplace Scotland - 81.36%
Chargeplace is the key charging provider in Scotland and is actually run by the government. Their charging points are simple to use and are relatively cheap, however, you may find that they aren't as quick as other providers. Overall very good!
4. Shell Recharge - 79.44%
Multinational oil company Shell also provides an electronic car charging point service at most garages throughout the UK. Shell customers say that their charging points are simple to use and are decent in both charging costs and charging times.
5. Pod Point - 79.24%
Pod Point is well known in the EV world for their nifty home-charging appliances, however, they do also offer various charging stations. Charging speeds are reportedly slower than other providers but they are reliable, easy to use, and fairly cheap.
6. Polar (BP) - 79.14%
Polar offers both a subscription and pay as you go service for their charging points. The idea of having a subscription service is great for those drivers who don’t want to continuously pull change out of their pocket to recharge their vehicle. Their charging points are simple to use, however, they aren't the most reliable and don't have the best charging times.
7. Engenie - 78.65%
Engenie is unique in that they are committed to supplying energy from renewable resources and have pledged to install around 2000 charging points in the next few years. Their charging points are fairly-well priced, aren’t difficult to use, and charge relatively well.
8. Geniepoint - 76.83%
Genie Point is supermarket Morrisons, EV charging partner, so you may have seen their car charging points before at a number of different Morrisons supermarkets. They are fairly average when it comes to charging, cost and reliability.
9. Charge Your Car - 76.23%
The Charge Your Car network is a fast-growing electronic charging station company owned by local councils. The charging points aren’t as well developed as other point providers so in-turn doesn’t offer the best charging, cost, and reliability. All in all, they are pretty average.
10. Ecotricity - 64.05%
At the bottom of the list sits Ecotricity. They are amazing in that they are a green energy supplier that focuses on renewable energy, however, their charging points aren’t as great as any of the other companies.