Drive your EV around Britain using free charging

01 November 2022

Want a cost-free road trip? Peugeot reveals how drivers of electric vehicles can travel the length of mainland Britain without spending a penny on recharging.

There are over 4,400 free-to-use public EV chargepoints in the UK, and Peugeot claims that you could complete the entire 2,688-mile journey around the coastline of mainland Britain in an EV without paying to charge.

Starting at Land’s End, the route runs along England’s southern and eastern coasts, up through Scotland via John O’Groats before returning to Land’s End through Wales using only free public chargers.

The furthest distance between two free charge points, on the route between Chelmsford and Sandringham, is 168 miles.

Many of the approximately 4,400 free charge points in Britain (more than a tenth of the UK’s 35,000 public chargers) are located in retail parks, hotels and public car parks and are funded by retailers, landowners and some Local Authorities, allowing drivers to charge overnight or run errands while their vehicles charge.

The ChargePlace Scotland network features more than 2,000 chargers, with the majority available for free to users who have the ChargePlace Scotland app or who pay a one-off £10 fee for a charging card.

Driving the same route in a petrol Peugeot 208 – one of the most economical petrol cars – can cost drivers over £400.

An 80% charge using a 50kW rapid charger costs an estimated £26 for an electric Peugeot e-208, while using home charging and taking advantage of lower energy tariffs can bring the same charge down to just £6.80 (based on a cost of £0.65 per kWh for a 50kW rapid charger and £0.17 per kWh at home).

According to Zap-Map, 84% of free public chargers are ‘fast’, meaning they will charge a car at between 7.5 kW and 22 kW, allowing owners to fully charge an EV in around seven and a half hours from a 7 kW charger, or as little as five hours if an EV has an 11 kW on-board charger and is using an 11 kW chargepoint.

Julie David, Managing Director, Peugeot UK, said: “Road trips are a great way to experience what the UK has to offer and our research shows the significant cost savings available for electric vehicle drivers thanks to the network of free-to-use public chargers. While few motorists are likely to complete the full 2,688-mile loop, our research highlights the potentially under-used free charging network in the UK.”