If you own an electric car, or are considering buying one, you’ll know how difficult it is to find a local charging point. The government provides a handful, as do a clutch of companies bent on cashing in on the slow-burning EV trend, but the number of EV charging points could explode exponentially thanks to a new homeowner charging initiative.
ParkatmyHouse.com, the service that lets you rent your parking space or driveway to strangers, has partnered with Source London, energy company SSE and Chargemaster, to allows London homeowners to have charging points installed on their driveways without having to pay the usual £1,500 installation cost.
Once a charging point has been installed on your land, ParkatmyHouse.com can then list your driveway as a charging point. EV owners who need a battery boost in your area will then be able to book charging time on your drive (via the Source London charge point map) at a price dictated by the homeowner.
Okay, so the idea of having people turn up at your house to re-juice their car while you sit there waiting for your parking space to become vacant is potentially hugely annoying, particularly as drivers will likely hang around outside your gaff for hours at a time waiting for electrons to flow from your house to their battery, but there are obvious benefits. The more charging points there are in the city, the more enticing electric cars become, which is great news for your wallet and for the environment.
800 charge points are available to use immediately, according to Parkat myHouse.com, and a further 200 are set to arrive in the ‘coming months’. 1,300 charge points are expected by 2013.
We’ve no figures to verify the popularity of this fledgling electric scheme, but one ParkatmyHouse.com customer, Mark Jabbal from Uxbridge, said that he has seen more than 75 bookings since having the charge point installed earlier in 2012.
CEO of ParkatmyHouse.com Anthony Eskinazi commented on the partnership: “We are hugely excited to be involved in this programme. Not only will this provide EV drivers with additional charge points throughout the capital, and help speed up the adoption of electric cars in London, but it will also enable homeowners to generate a new source of income from electric car drivers.”
It’s not clear whether the rest of the UK will benefit from the success of the scheme but if electric vehicles suddenly catch on, and that’s not entirely unrealistic given rising motoring costs, we can see the initiative being shifted to other major cities
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