Is Now The Time To Fit A Home EV Charger?

by | Jul 28, 2022 | Blog | 0 comments

The world may seem a chaotic and fast-changing place right now with major changes in government on the way, but whoever runs the country, there is no doubt the direction of travel is clear when it comes to electric vehicles.

Growing concern about the emissions generated by road users has pushed electrical vehicles to the forefront of transport planning, with petrol and diesel on the way out and EV manufacturers like Tesla sure to be in the news all the time, and not just because of the huge wealth and occasional eccentricities of its owner Elon Musk.

However, a key issue for adoption has to be the capacity to charge up cars, with both sufficient battery power and enough charging points vital to overcome any concern that drivers might suddenly find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere with a flat battery.

This issue was recently explored by BBC Wales as it considered the challenge of getting across some very rural areas on a long-distance journey. For Manchester-based motorists, such an issue is not so pressing as they would have to travel beyond other large towns and cities before reaching very rural areas, such as Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Northumberland.

According to that BBC report, however, there is massive variation in charger provision. Of all regions, London is way ahead with charger provision at around 10,000, whereas there are only around 2,000 in the north west.

For that reason, many people will consider the option of having a charging facility installed at home.

Many EV charging stations in Manchester are located at railways stations. Network Rail’s decision to fit them there means it has recently installed 111 in Manchester. Moreover, there may be more on the way across the conurbation; for example, it has just been revealed that Cheadle in Stockport is to get a new railway station with its own EV charging points.

Cheadle’s situation, however, is a reminder that there are parts of Greater Manchester that are not close to a railway station. The Wythenshawe area of Manchester, for example, along with the Wilmslow Road and Princess Parkway corridors south of the city centre and the north west of Salford are all in this category. 

All this is the case in areas where the population has been rising swiftly. 2021 Census figures published at the end of June showed the population of Manchester was up almost ten per cent since 2011, from 503,000 to 552,000, while Salford’s population was up by 15.4 per cent – the tenth highest increase in England and Wales – to almost 270,000.

Overall, Greater Manchester’s population has now climbed to 2.87 million, compared with Greater London’s 8.8 million. This means if the 10,000 EV charging points in the capital were matched pro-rata, Greater Manchester would have over 3,000, a third more than the present figure for an English region stretching from Crewe to Carlisle.

All this means that while the number of EV charging points is rising, if you are running an electric car it may be well worth your while to have a charger installed at home to make sure you always have a full battery.

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