Where can you charge your Electric Car in Oxfordshire?

Charging your electric car in Oxfordshire and the surrounding areas is becoming easier with new infrastructure coming to the area.

If you’re based in and around Oxford, chances are you’re already not too far from a public charging point. The Hartwell dealerships of Abingdon, Kidlington, Oxford used car and van centre and our Head Office are well supported by Oxford’s charging network.

What’s more, the charging network within Oxfordshire is set to increase significantly with 2 projects in the works; The Park and Charge Oxfordshire project and the Energy Superhub Oxford. These projects will make Oxford one of the most convenient areas to own an Electric Vehicle.

It is thought that as much as 80% of charging an electric car occurs at home. Most EV owners have a home charging point which provides a convenient top up of range overnight. Workplaces are also popular place for EV charging, with most offices and commercial car parks now fitted with at least one charger.

However, public charging points are still vital when it comes to converting combustion engine cars to electric, something the government is planning to do when the sale of ICE vehicles are banned in 2030. There are now nearly 18,000 locations in the UK that have one or more charging stations, and that number is growing significantly every year.

Chargers in supermarket car parks and shopping centres are also usually free of charge, such as Oxford’s Westgate car park, so provide an easy and efficient way to run your car. Other public charging points include ones in public car parks and at petrol stations. The majority of these are ‘fast’ chargers or ‘rapid’ chargers. The difference between the two is that rapid chargers can fully recharge most cars in between 10-45 minutes, whilst fast chargers can take a couple of hours, depending on the car model.

The image displays a map of the public charging points in Oxford and the surrounding area. The blue symbols represent fast chargers and the purple represent rapid chargers.

Most rapid charging points are based at fuel stations, whilst fast chargers are usually in places like car parks and leisure centres where people are more likely to spend some time whilst their vehicle charges.

As depicted, central Oxford benefits the most from public charging infrastructure, however the towns of Abingdon and Kidlington have also begun to benefit from public charging points.

The good news is that within a couple of years, the above map should have significantly more markers. The Park and Charge Oxfordshire project is a project funded by The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK, and led by the Oxfordshire County Council in close partnership with each of the Oxfordshire District Councils.

It involves installing charging points in 20 car parks throughout Oxfordshire! Each location will have at least 10 chargepoints installed and some will contain up to 16. This will provide a huge increase in available chargepoints in the more rural areas of Oxfordshire and be gladly welcomed by EV drivers.

Some charging points are already in use, whilst the rest should be completed before the summer of 2022.

The Energy Superhub Oxford is a very exciting initiative run by Oxford City Council. The Council has ambitious plans to eliminate 10,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year and are taking various methods to achieve this.

But most excitingly, work has already begun on what will be the UK’s largest public EV charging hub at Redbridge Park & Ride, which will see the installation of 38 fast and ultra-rapid EV chargers for drivers; The Oxford Superhub.

The site will be open 24/7 and will enable contactless payments. It was initially a 3-year project which started in 2019, but unforeseen delays mean the brilliant Superhub should be finished in March 2023.

Map of The Park & Charge Oxfordshire Plan

The project should allow Oxford City Council and Oxford as a city achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, 10 years ahead of the government deadline. The plans for this Net Zero goal includes 25% of cars in Oxford being electric by 2025, 80% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

Sales of EVs in Oxfordshire are already higher than the national average, and the planned infrastructure would make it an even better place to own an electric car.

Hartwell Oxford used car and van centre offers a great range of used electric cars in Oxfordshire, so it’s the perfect place to make the switch.

Or pop into our Abingdon and Kidlington Ford dealerships to shop new and used Ford electric models, including the award winning Mustang Mach-E