Guide | Article
Need to know more about charging on the go?
Need to know more about charging on the go?
You’re probably here because your first shiny new electric company car has just glided silently into the car park or your driveway. Or, because your place of work has suggested you should go electric soon. Either way, we can imagine you have a whole list of questions about when, where and how to charge your vehicle.
With over a decade’s experience in EV charging, we hope our beginner’s guide will cover the essentials for you.
A: If you’re already a company car driver, you’ll know that how often you need to refuel a petrol or diesel vehicle is totally dependent on a number of things. For example:
How far you travel
How hard you put your foot down
How heavy the load in your vehicle is
How many things you have running at once – ie music system, aircon and heated seats
Whether you cut the engine at lights, in traffic, etc
It won’t be a surprise that the same things are likely to have an effect on how quickly you need to recharge your electric vehicle.
Some things are a little different. For example, most electric vehicle manufacturers recommend you only charge your EV battery to up to 80%, as opposed to keeping an ICE car or van full of fuel.
This is to help protect the battery and extend its life, which means it’s not a great idea to charge it for long periods every day. To remind you of this, your vehicle will have a built-in function that slows charging down significantly once you go over 80%.
On average, we travel less than 200 miles per week and many electric car models have ranges of more than this on a single charge. If you regularly make shorter journeys, you may prefer to only ever top-up in smaller, faster doses. Or, you might opt for weekly, slower overnight or all-day charges and then only top up on the go if you absolutely need to.
If you’re regularly on the road for longer journeys, you’re most likely to choose a mix of charging times and locations – home, work and on the go – to give you the range you need.
There, we’ve said it out loud for you. And no, it’s not a strange thing to ask. Most of us don’t know how many kilowatts (kW) we need to power electrical devices in our homes. Being asked to suddenly understand the difference between 7kW, 150kW and 300kW chargers and 50kWh and 95kWh batteries can feel completely alien.
Electrical appliances are measured in how many kilowatts are needed to continually run them. For example, a toaster or small dishwasher may have a power rating of around 1,000 watts or 1kW, whereas a kettle or oven might need 1500 – 2000 watts (1.5kW to 2kW). Because EV chargers deliver power, they are given kW ratings of between 3kW and 300kW.
However, your electric vehicle battery capacity is measured by how many kilowatts it will need to keep it running for an hour, for example 50kWh. To put this into context, 1kWh – or a kilowatt-hour, is enough energy to run your toaster or small dishwasher with a power rating of 1,000 watts – for one hour.
A: That means, the answer to this question is that the lower the power output of the charger and the larger the battery, the longer or slower the charge. Whereas the higher the kW and smaller the battery capacity, the faster your car will be on the road. For example:
7kW chargers are best used when you are off doing something else, like sleeping at home or in a hotel, taking a train journey or you’re at your workplace for the day – so are often found in these locations.
A 150kw charger is capable of charging up to 40 miles of range in around 15 minutes depending on the vehicle, its charge management software, its battery, the weather and driving conditions.
These ultra-fast units are capable of charging up to 100 miles of range in around 15 minutes depending on the vehicle, its charge management software, its battery, the weather and driving conditions.
A: Apps and maps are the two most popular ways of locating your nearest place to stop and charge. You can use the bp pulse app or our map of charge points and filter the results for chargers by clicking the icon with three lines inside the search bar.
Whether you’re planning developments, running a fleet, or looking to transition workplace, hospital or retail car parks, we’ll help build an EV strategy around you.
A: Yes, it does. In the same way that we can guess that a 1.2-litre engine might belong to a supermini and a 3.0 litre to a large SUV or fast-performance car – the size of a battery, which we’ve established is measured in kilowatt-hours, will generally indicate the size of an electric car. For example, the Peugeot e-208 has a 50kWh battery and the Porsche Taycan’s has a capacity of up to 93.4kWh.
The only snag with larger capacity batteries is that they weigh more and this can reduce the efficiency of the vehicle. A smaller, more efficient battery will get you further on fewer kilowatt-hours and for less money. It is a matter of preference in terms of the type of vehicle you’d like to drive and what’s most important to you.
A: You’ll probably already be well-accustomed to choosing the right fuel for your previous company vehicles. If you’re using a public charger, choosing the right cable will feel familiar.
Charging a Jaguar I-Pace for fifteen minutes on a 150kW DC charger with a Combined Charging System (CCS) versus sixty minutes using a Type 2 AC connector will give you significantly more miles in range.
Put simply, you’re most likely to use your Type 2 connector when charging slowly at home, work or a long-stay car park and a CCS or CHAdeMO for faster charging at work or on the go, depending on the age and manufacturer of your vehicle.
Typical output: 3kW, 7kW, 22kW, 43kW
You can see this as your standard connection. The one that fits nearly all electric vehicles and is most commonly used for charging at home or where you choose to slowly charge over a number of hours at work or elsewhere.
You can also use the Type 2 to top up selected vehicles, such as the BMWi3 or Renault Zoe, more quickly using 22kW or 42kW chargers.
Typical output: 50kW, 150kW
The CHAdeMO name was given to the standard charging port for EVs manufactured in Japan or Korea. It’s the cable you’ll need to use a rapid charger that outputs 50kW, or 150kW of ultra-fast charging if you’re driving a car with a larger battery.
Some compatible batteries can be charged in as quickly as 20 minutes with this cable through a DC ultra-fast charger.
Typical output: 50kW, 150kW, 175kW
The combined charging system or CCS connector is fast becoming the standard for modern EVs in Europe, over and above the CHAdeMO.
The good news is that most of the latest batteries will charge in less than an hour when hooked up to a rapid or ultra-fast DC charger.
To summarise this from the answers to our questions above. It depends on:
the size of your battery
how frequently and/or far you travel each week
how you drive
how much of a load you have in your car
how long you’ll be on the road for your next journey
how much you wish to spend
More and more workplaces, especially those encouraging you to choose electric for your company or salary sacrifice cars, are installing chargers at work. If you are someone who drives to an office or depot on a regular basis, it might make the most sense to take advantage of these facilities for slow or rapid charging.
If you’d like to suggest installing chargers at work to your manager or the person responsible, check out our workplace charging scheme and we can help you take it from there.
Public charge points are often rapid or ultra-fast chargers, which mean you can charge while you pop into a shop, eat a meal, go to the gym or visit a friend. Or, if you’re someone who drops off the car to jump on a train or regularly stays in hotels, you may choose to charge more slowly while you’re not using your vehicle.
If you live in a flat that has dedicated off-street parking, as long as you have permission from the car park landlord (this could be your building landlord or another entity), you are eligible to install a home charger.
You’ll be pleased to know that you will also be able to claim an Office for Zero Emission Vehicles grant for up to £350 for your charger – or your workplace can claim this for you if they offer to pay for the installation.
If you live in a flat and park on a street that doesn’t currently have charging facilities – the good news is that local councils are being provided specific funding for this, so you may see one pop up soon.
If you’d like to get things moving yourself, you can contact us – we may be able to work with you to let your local council know you’re interested.
There are a few different ways to pay for public charging. Destination chargers have historically required a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card or key fob to be hovered over a sensor to start and stop charging sessions, which is important to note if you plan to use chargers located in places like supermarkets or public car parks.
As charge points become easier to access, many rapid and ultra-fast chargers also offer contactless as a payment option for drivers who don’t use public chargers frequently. For example, it is possible to use your bank card, Apple Pay or Google Pay to start, pay for and stop a session on bp pulse50 and bp pulse150 chargers.
Many chargers can also be accessed using smartphone apps, so it’s worth downloading one like the bp pulse app to get set up ahead of when you need to charge your car.
It’s likely your employer will have set you up with a business charging card like bp pulse on the go - Corporate, or perhaps our Fuel & Charge card if your fleet at work still includes petrol and diesel vehicles. Both of these will give you all of the above options as ways to pay.
If you haven’t been offered a business account, you can always set up a personal bp pulse subscription. As a subscription member, you’ll have access to one of the largest charging networks in the UK with free charging in selected places. Otherwise, you will pay the best tariffs on our 7kW to our bp pulse150 chargers on BP forecourts.
Where your employer pays for your home charger to be installed alongside giving you a company car, you will not be liable for any benefit in kind taxation.
The HMRC mileage allowance for reclaiming any electricity used to charge your company car at home was increased to five pence per mile in November 2021. Your place of work may have a different reimbursement rate in place.
If you plan to use your own electric car and your employer pays for your home charger, it is classed as a benefit that you will need to pay tax and national insurance on.
The mileage allowance for reclaiming any electricity you use to charge your own car is the same standard rate as for petrol and diesel cars – forty-five pence per mile for the first ten thousand miles and then twenty-five pence per mile.
If your company has installed electric chargers at work, or nearby to where you work, there’s an HMRC exemption in place which means you won’t be charged BIK on any energy you use to charge your vehicle – whether it’s for business or private mileage.
If you’ve just bought an electric car yourself that you’ll be travelling to work in, any energy you use to charge your vehicle, regardless of its use, will also be exempt from benefit in kind taxation. This is as long as the workplace chargers are available for all employees to use.
Where your employer pays for public charging, for example with a charge card, in association with your company car, you will not be liable for any BIK.
If your employer pays for your public charging card for business and/or personal use when you use your own electric car – this will be subject to benefit in kind taxation.
A: The simple answer is yes. The responses relate to the ‘electric’ side of a plug-in hybrid car. The only exception is that plug-in hybrids may not benefit from an ultra-fast charge in the same way as their electric counterpart because PHEV onboard chargers are not designed to accept the additional power output.
Typically found in locations like shopping centres, offices and public car parks, they offer a power output of between 3 and 7kW.
Rapid chargers are capable of charging up to 40 miles of range in around 15 minutes depending on the vehicle, its charge management software, its battery, the weather and driving conditions
Ultra-fast chargers are capable of charging up to 100 miles of range in around 15 minutes depending on the vehicle, its charge management software, its battery, the weather and driving conditions.
These chargers allow drivers to pay for their charging session using contactless, and are being rolled out on bp forecourts across the UK.
We'll keep your electric vehicle moving as you travel around the UK with our network of charging points—so you can plug in, power up, and go.
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