With the debate about public electric car charging infrastructure still raging and the demand for EVs becoming ever greater, spurred on by the ULEZ expansion and the introduction of clean air zones, it's often overlooked just how many motorists want to avoid the chaos and plug their EV in at home.
Happily, this is becoming more of a priority – evident in the UK government's legislation that stipulates all new-build houses, as well as flats with parking for more than 10 cars, must have electric car charging facilities.
According to Autocar's sibling title What Car?, there are currently around 400,000 home and workplace chargers available in the UK, with 80% of EV owners choosing to charge at their own abode.
These figures were no doubt helped by the fact that the government would provide £350 towards the cost of having a charger fitted at home, but this is no longer available in quite the same way. To install a home charger now costs anything from around £400 – and can cost more than £1000 in some cases.
As well as different prices, they also charge at various speeds - anything from 3.6kW to 22kW. This, however, depends on whether your building has single-phase or three-phase power.
In the standard single-phase system that most residential properties have, you’ll be able to charge up to around 7kW. Properties with three-phase power can cope with a 22kW charger.
To get the best bang for your buck, we'd recommend a 7kW charger, which will be able to charge your car overnight. For example, a Volkswagen ID 3 will take around 10 hours to charge at one.
With so many available on the market, however, which ones are the best for value, service, reliability and customer satisfaction? With findings from What Car?’s best home charger survey, let's break down the top five.
1. Pod Point
It's good news that Pod Point is one of the UK's largest providers of at-home EV chargers, because its chargers are easy to use, reliable and quite affordable to buy. Gaining the highest score for value, nine out of 10 chargers cost £750 or less overall.
Pod Point scores well for service, too, with 98% of chargers installed in less than three months, and 85.7% of owners said they were very happy with their chargers in the What Car? satisfaction survey.
2. Hypervolt
Founded in 2018, Hypervolt offers chargers designed and built in the UK and they are available as stand-alone units or with fitting. The chargers tended to be pricier than average, with 35% of What Car?'s survey respondents paying more than £1000 for the unit and installation. Six in 10 paid more than £750.
