First Electric Vehicle Charging Points Go Live

The first of a series of 62 EV chargers which have been installed in council-run car parks across the Vale of White Horse district are now up and running.

The chargers – which have been installed as part of the county-wide Park and Charge scheme – are ready to use by EV owners in our council-run car park in Cattle Market, Abingdon.

Ten chargers are available now at Cattle Market  with the remaining 52 due to come online in the next few days at other council-run car parks: Portway in Wantage, Audlett Drive, West St Helens in Abingdon and Southampton Street in Faringdon.

The chargers will work from 7kW up to 22kW depending on the vehicle, time of day and the EV hub take-up.  You will also be able to reserve charging bays so EV drivers can be assured of being able to charge on arrival.

More information about the chargers can be found here parkandchargeoxfordshire.co.uk. 

Councillor Sally Povolotsky, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Environment at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “It’s great news that these are available to support those drivers who have already made the switch to electric while encouraging those that are thinking about making the move, to do so. The more people who feel they can make the change to cleaner and greener transport, the better for us all.”

The new chargers have been designed and produced by local Bicester-based company – EZ Charge – who will operate the chargers going forward. More details on how to use the chargers and the Park and Charge scheme is available on the park and charge website.

Under the Park and Charge scheme 62 EV chargers are also being installed in South Oxfordshire in council-run car parks in Henley, Wallingford and Thame. Park and Charge EV chargers are also available in Cherwell and West Oxfordshire. For more details see parkandchargeoxfordshire.co.uk.  

EV events

• Friday 27 May from 1pm-4pm – at Portway car park in Wantage
• Monday 30 May from 9am-12pm – at West St Helen car park in Abingdon

At these events people will get the opportunity to meet the project team, check out the new chargers, talk to EV experts and EV Champions, and to test drive (tbc) a range of EVs to suit all budgets.  There is even FREE EV charging sessions on offer at each event for the first ten EV drivers.

Notes to editors

Each car park will offer both ‘tethered’ and ‘socketed’ chargers, which means all EV drivers can use them, whether they have Type 1 or Type 2 connections.

The Park and Charge Oxfordshire project has attracted £5.4m of funding, with £4.1m being funded through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles via Innovate UK and the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme. The remaining investment has come from commercial partners Zeta Specialist Lighting and [ui!] UK (Urban Integrated).   

South and Vale councils are looking to identify more rural locations in the districts where EV charging points could be installed to offer the service and options to change for more people.

The launch had been temporarily delayed by a global shortage of microchips for the meters, fortunately the installation team worked hard to source the necessary components and the start date was put back by just a couple of weeks rather than months.