Electric vehicle charging – Herefordshire Council

Electric vehicle chargepoints

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) chargepoint 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

Plans have been approved for new EV chargepoints at Gaol Street car park, St Katherine's car park, Kyrle Street car park and Mill Street car park. Chargepoints are likely to be installed in summer 2025.

The first batch of EV chargepoints as part of the government's Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Pilot scheme have been approved. The chargepoints will be installed on residential streets where there are high proportions of housing with limited access to off-street parking. Follow the Herefordshire Council social media accounts for further updates.

EV drivers group

We have an EV drivers email group. To join please email electricvehicles@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, particularly if you charge overnight on an EV energy tariff, makes running an EV considerably cheaper. It is predicted that someone buying a new EV next year will recoup the additional upfront cost within 5 years.

Not everyone is ready to make the switch to an EV, however, don't let the misinformation that is out there sway you. The Energy Saving Trust debunk some of the common misconceptions about electric vehicles on their website - 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 150 kW or more. For those EVs capable of accepting 150 kW or more, charging times are kept down to 20-30 minutes for a typical charge, even for models with a large battery capacity.

At present, through a concession contract with chargepoint operator Wenea, we are identifying sites across our managed car parks for additional chargepoints to be installed, including rapid chargers.

How much it costs to charge an EV

According to the Zapmap Price Index, the weighted average price to charge an electric car on the public charging network in December 2024 was 53p/kWh on slow/fast chargers and 80p/kWh for rapid/ultra-rapid chargers.

Using an average efficiency EV this equates to 16 pence per mile and 24 pence per mile respectively. The cost will vary depending on the location, tariff, energy cost, battery capacity, charging speed and charge level.

Despite the increase in public EV charging prices over the last few years, electric car drivers are mostly still in a better position than petrol and diesel drivers who have to fill up at the pumps..

How to find your nearest chargepoint

chargepoint 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 chargepoints in Herefordshire

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

The private sector will contribute significantly to the number of chargepoints 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 chargepoints

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