Motability

The range of an electric car is how far it will travel. A small electric car may have a range of just over 100 miles on a fully charged battery, however range is improving all the time and the majority of electric cars can now drive more than 200 miles between charges.

Like the miles per gallon (MPG) figure given for petrol and diesel cars, the range stated by a manufacturer is from test conditions and when driven in real world conditions the range achieved will be lower. As with all cars, things like number of passengers and weight being carried, speed, driving style, types of road and terrain, as well as the use of features such as heating and air conditioning, will all affect the range that an electric car can achieve on a fully charged battery. The weather also has an impact on range, so you should expect to achieve a lower range in colder weather.

An important way to preserve your range it to “pre-condition” your vehicle before you leave your house. Put simply, you schedule your departure time via the car’s media system, or vehicle app, and the car is heated or cooled to your settings while it is plugged in. This means it is prepped and ready to go using the electricity from the charger, rather than the battery in the car. This is particularly important in winter when you might need the windows defrosted – doing this while the vehicle is plugged in at home will preserve your battery and maximise your range.

If you are able to have a home charger fitted, this can make recharging more convenient than using traditional petrol stations, however if you need to recharge when you are out and about it will take longer than refuelling a traditional petrol or diesel car. It’s good to know that charging technology is improving all the time and if you choose an ‘ultra-fast’ or ‘ultra-rapid’ charger you could recharge in around 15 minutes.

Electric chargepoints generally fall into three types: slow, fast and rapid. If you have a home chargepoint installed as part of your first lease for a fully electric vehicle this will be a 7kW charger.

• Slow – 3kW (charging a 40kWh battery will take 13 hours)
• Fast – from 7kW to 22kW (a 22kW charger will top up a 40kWh battery in 2 hours)
• Rapid – from 43kW to 50 kW (a 50kW charger will top up a 40kWh battery in 1 hour 15 minutes)
• Ultra-fast / ultra-rapid – 150kW (charging a 40kWh battery will take 15 minutes)

It always takes longer to charge if you are starting from a completely empty battery, so we recommend that you recharge when the battery level gets down to around 10-20%. Starting a charge from 10% could take around 30 minutes less using a fast charger.

One of the great things about leasing an electric car through the Motability Scheme is that the home chargepoint is included at no extra cost for customers leasing their first pure battery electric vehicle. Having a chargepoint fitted at your home is the most convenient and cost-effective way of charging your electric car.

To get a home chargepoint fitted you must have off-road parking, for example a driveway or garage. Once your application for an electric car has been accepted, we will allocate you to one of our approved chargepoint installers. All our installers will help you through the process of having the specialist 7KW chargepoint installed. You’ll need to take some photos of where you want the charger fitted and your fuse board too.

Obviously this depends on the energy tariff you are on, however for a typical electric car with a 60kWh battery and 200-mile range, it should cost around £9.20 for a full charge at home*. On average, electricity will cost around a third of what the petrol would cost. So, for the miles that would cost you £90 in petrol, this should cost you around £30 in an electric car.

However, the cost of energy varies significantly depending on which tariff you are on, so it’s really important that you speak to your energy provider. They will advise you on the best off-peak time to charge your car, usually overnight, as this will make a big difference to the cost of charging. Some energy providers have special tariffs for charging electric cars. There is information on tariffs for electric cars on some of the popular price comparison websites.

There are more than 45,000 chargepoint connectors across the UK with more being added every day. The network is made up of lots of different providers, some of which may require you to download an app or to register or subscribe to use their charge points, whereas others you can access using a contactless payment card.

If you don’t have off-street parking, or you’re not able to have a home chargepoint installed, Motability Scheme customers leasing their first pure electric vehicle, are given access to the BP Pulse Polar Network. This is a network of over 8,000 charge points run by BP Pulse that offers discounted or free charging at selected chargepoints across the UK.