Electric vehicle charging

Throughout Europe, there are many places to charge your car like motorways, service stations, petrol stations, public car parks and supermarkets. Destination chargers can also be found at hotels.

Your sat-nav will help you find the nearest chargepoints but you can also use sites like Chargemap and Plug Surfing to help you.

Just like in the UK, you can pay via debit or credit card although some stations may ask you to download the network app.

When ordering your vehicle, you can add the electric charger option to your rental. Not all properties are suitable for an electric charger installation, but this is something our suppliers can advise on.

Wherever possible, our supliers will install an untethered unit (where you plug into it with the car cable, rather than one with a cable hard wired in). They'll give technical support, service and warranty for three years, and they can control your unit remotely if something goes wrong with it. This charger will be yours to own and you can get more help with apps allowing you to monitor your usage and costs. The unit can be mounted either indoors or outside.

There are several ways to pay at charging stations.

• 1.
  1.

  Debit or credit card: normally only available at rapid and ultra-rapid units.

• 2.
  2.

  Pay on an app: many networks have an app for you to download. Once you've set yourself up with a login you can set up a payment method then tap and pay as you go. Some networks offer charging discounts if you sign up to full membership.

• 3.
  3.

  Electric car charging card: are slowly being replaced by apps, but works by tapping the card against the reader. They're paired to an online account and with subscriptions too for active users.

There are several different types of sockets used in the UK. What you have will be loosely based on the manufacturer:

Type 2 - is the standard for European and Asian vehicles from 2018 onwards and can charge at a level of up to 43kW.

CCS - widely used in Europe, this is a version of type 2 connector with two additional power contacts. It allows very fast charging. The socket is always combined with either a type 2 or 1 socket

CHAdeMO - mainly used in older vehicles and the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi Outlander.

Tesla uses its own Tesla connector standard although adapters are available.

Once you know what types of chargepoint your vehicle can use, it will help you filter by charger type when planning your route.

There are 4 types of charging slow, fast, rapid and ultra-rapid.

Slow charging is between 3kW-6kW and is generally used at home with a 3-pin plug, the ones below can be used on the go:

Fast (7-22kW): This category covers chargers from 7kW – 22kW and tends to cover home charging, supermarket chargers, garage forecourts & hotels (average cost: 26p p/Kw, highest 45p, and lowest 4p as at Nov 2022)

Rapid (50+kW): when you’re on the road and need to top-up rapid charge is a great option. Rapid chargers can top you from empty to 80% in 20-60 minutes (average cost: 56p p/Kw, highest £2.77, and lowest 30p as at Nov 2022)

Ultra-rapid (100+Kw): This is the next generation of rapid chargers. The Tesla only network is called supercharge and uses this technology. These chargers can deliver 200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes.(Average cost: 56p p/Kw, highest £2.77, and lowest 30p as at Nov 2022).

This varies depending on which network you charge with and how fast the charger delivers the electric (normally if it's faster it will tend to be more expensive. Changes in energy supply costs recently will also mean the costs are likely to change regularly.

There are many apps and websites which can give you this information - Zap Map, Google Maps, Chargemap, PlugShare and more.

Public charging stations can typically be found at destination locations such as retail parks, supermarkets, service stations, hotels and more, so you can top-up whilst shopping or dining.