Electric vehicle charging point open in South Derbyshire

Residents in South Derbyshire can benefit from a new electric vehicle charging point supplied by South Derbyshire District Council.

The new charging point at Swadlincote Bus Station car park on Civic Way was fitted at the end of last year and is now available for residents to use.

South Derbyshire District Council successfully bid for the facility from a Government fund to help promote the uptake of electric vehicles across the UK.

The ChargePoint is operated by Chargemaster BP, one of the UKs biggest electric charging providers, and is one of the 230 new charging points in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as part of the D2N2 electric vehicle charging network.

Its estimated that an average car with a 40 kWh battery can travel 65-80 miles on one charge, which would cost around £7 to £8 from empty. This is a saving of roughly £10-15 in comparison filling up a 1.4 or 1.6 fuel car.

Customers can use the rapid charging point for 90 minutes; a 40Kwh battery will take around an hour to charge. Anyone needing to use the charging point for longer can do so for a £10 charge.

Councillor Andy McPherson, South Derbyshire District Council’s chairman of environment and development services committee, said:

“I’m pleased that we are able to provide this new electric vehicle charging point.

“There are now more public charge points for electric vehicles in the UK than there are petrol filling stations, making the conversion to cleaner, quieter electric vehicles a realistic prospect for many. The charge points are supplied with energy from renewable sources.

“Although we only have the one charging point at the moment, we have plans to install further charging points as funding allows.”

Local residents can apply for a D2N2 RFID discount card, which costs £20 per year and offers a discount of 10p per kWh, at http://www.chargeyourcar.org.uk/d2n2. The link also lists locations of the charging points on the regional network.

Details of the thousands of charge points across the UK can be found at https://www.zap-map.com/charge-points/public-charging-point-networks/polar-network.

The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and is working towards being carbon neutral by 2030 and to work with residents, businesses and partners to reduce their carbon footprint.  

20 February 2020