York gets rapid vehicle charging points

Rapid charge points installed at five locations are first in Yorkshire, city council claims

City of York council has become the first local authority in Yorkshire to own and run its own rapid car charging points.

Five points have been set up at locations across the city to complement the existing network of standard charge points.

The rapid chargers were partly funded through a 75% capital grant from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles.

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They will work by using either a swipe card or by downloading a free app, both of which are available from the pay-as-you-go vehicle charging website www.chargeyourcar.org.uk.

The council claims that the existing standard charging network in York which output up to 21kW AC has been popular with EV drivers and five new dual headed charging points are being activated across Bootham Row car park, Askham Bar Park & Ride and Poppleton Park & Ride.

The cost to use any charging point in the council’s network is 15p per kWh of energy and a transaction fee of 30p. This works out at around 3.7p per mile.

Cllr Dave Merrett, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability, said: “This is another important step towards achieving our goal of improving air quality and tackling climate change, by putting the infrastructure in place for electric vehicle recharging.

“Using electric vehicles means a 50 to 60 percent reduction in CO2 and zero fuel-related emissions of air pollutants, with significantly lower running costs than diesel, which makes them ideal for businesses and others in the York’s area.”