Dorset Council’s plans to increase the number of public charge points for electric vehicles (EVs) in Dorset are now underway, with the first new charging unit installed in Sherborne this month.
This expansion to the existing charging network will see a combination of fast (22kW), rapid (50kW) and ultra-fast (150kW) charging units installed across Dorset; the latter allowing users to charge 100 miles in just ten minutes.
Increasing the number of EV charging points available to Dorset’s residents and visitors is a key action in the council’s ambitious Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and will be essential if Dorset hopes to meet the government target of becoming a carbon neutral county by 2050.
Cllr Ray Bryan, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said:
““In rural counties like Dorset, car ownership is amongst the highest in the country.
“By increasing the provision of electric vehicle charging points, we hope to provide the essential infrastructure needed to encourage more car owners in Dorset to choose electric vehicles over petrol and diesel equivalents.
“Travel is one of the biggest contributors to our county’s carbon footprint, so, as part of our response to the climate and ecological emergency, it’s vital we make the changes needed to help tackle this.”
The new charging points, which are being installed by Joju Charging, are planned for the following locations:
- Streche Road car park, Wareham
- West Street car park, Corfe Castle
- Leigh Road car park, Wimborne Minster
- Durngate Street car park, Dorchester
- Bonnets Lane (East) car park, Wareham
- Culverhayes car park, Sherborne
- Nothe car park, Weymouth
- Lower Sea Lane car park, Charmouth
- Yarn Barton car park, Beaminster
- South Street car park, Bridport
- Station Road car park, Sturminster Newton
- Lodmoor car park, Weymouth
- Purbeck Park, Norden car park, Corfe Castle
- Durlston Country Park, Swanage
- High Street, Cranborne
- Church Lane car park, Blandford Forum
- Penny’s Lodge car park, Ferndown
- Rope Walks car park, Bridport
- Top O’Town short stay car park, Dorchester
- Swannery car park, Weymouth
- Old Market Yard car park, Sherborne
- Fairfield long stay car park, Dorchester
- Holmbush car park, Lyme Regis
Funding to install and manage the new charge points is coming from a mixture of sources, with the main bulk of the cost (77%) being met by Joju and their funding partners Mer. The remaining costs are being funded by the council through a mixture of developer funding and the Department of Transport’s On-Street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS).
Chas Warlow, Head of Sales for Joju Charging, added:
“Joju is delighted to be working with Dorset Council once again, following the success of our partnership with the council and Mer Charging UK on the first phase of the council’s roll-out of EV charging infrastructure.”
Once this phase of installations is complete, Dorset Council will have over 80 charging units in its sponsored network, helping to keep Dorset in the top 20% of charge point numbers in the country. To view the locations of all Dorset’s charge points, visit www.zap-map.com.
Christopher Whitehouse, Dorset Council’s Transport Projects Officer, said of the newest installation at Old Market car park in Sherborne:
“As project manager, it’s really exciting to see the first charge point of this year’s ambitious installation programme go live.
“We hope this will encourage householders without space for their own charge point to consider making the switch to an electric car.”
Plans to extend Dorset’s charging network further are already taking shape, with the council announcing last month it had successfully secured funding to improve charging infrastructure in more rural parts of the county. This next phase of work is expected to begin in the new year.
For more information on electric vehicle charge points in Dorset, including where you can find them, how to use them, and how much they cost, visit the Dorset Council website.
Please liaise with Motability who are trialling EVs for people with disabilities to ensure no discrimination against these users of EVs in their access to charging stations.
Hi Sally – thank you for your feedback, I have passed this on to the team who are co-ordinating the expansion of the charging network.
If you have any queries about the electric charging points in the Dorset Council area you can email the team at ElectricVehicles@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.
Katie
It’s a pity that these are priced so high per kWh. Hardly likely to encourage those on average income to invest in electric vehicles.
Sorry that you find the prices high. Mer’s prices are actually below the average cost of charging nationally and not that far off Ofgem’s current domestic price cap of 29p per kW. If you sign up to Mer on their app then its only 37p per kW (including VAT at 20%) to charge at their fast chargepoints. That works out at about 8 pence per mile which is still considerably less than the cost per mile for a petrol or diesel car.
I hope these new charge points are reliable (25% of fast-charging points nationally are not fully available at any one time) and reasonably priced. The first Dorset chargers were hard to access without the right app, and you had to pay a £5 flat rate. A big problem for locals topping up. Sherborne will be very useful to us, as our son goes to school at Leweston, which has refused to put charge points in, which can make life difficult if we have arrived from a long way off with a marginal battery
Hi David – please find information on charging costs and charge point locations on the electric vehicle pages of the Dorset Council website: https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/parking/parking/electric-vehicle-charge-points.
Katie
Totally agree that chargepoints need to be reliable. Dorset Council monitors Mer chargepoint reliability closely and are pleased to report that most chargepoints are working most of the time. If they even came close to the 25% you refer to then we would have sought another supplier to install public chargepoints in Dorset Council car parks
As you say great news and congratulations to Chris for working with business partners such as JOJU.
It’s great you’re expanding the EV charging network, but I can’t help but feel this wasn’t very well thought through:
Mer’s EV charging prices are ridiculously high compared to other providers, as an example there’s rapid chargers costing 28p/kWh on other providers while Mer charges 46p, which is over 50% more expensive. So if you keep expanding the network like this, you’ll end up with plenty available chargers that no one will ever use because of the price.
Being this a service promoted by the council I would expect it to be more reasonably priced. Personally, I live at a 2 minute walk from a Mer charging station and work just across the street from another one, and never used any of them just because of the price.
Fast chargers are only 37p per kW – please see my response to another comment about pricing. Public charging is unlikely to be as cheap as home charging especially when you consider the costs of installing a public charge point and the fact that public chargers are liable to VAT at 20%. You may be interested to know that Mer’s Dorset Council sponsored chargepoints are each used on average between 3-5 hours per day.
I think you misunderstood what I said in my coment… Mer’s rapid chargers ( the ones that charge at speeds of 50kwh ) cost 46p per kw. There are other PUBLIC rapid chargers, also charging at 50kwh that cost only 28p per kw. I’ve been driving an EV for a long time, I don’t have a home charger and I never used a Mer charger because I always found cheaper alternatives. And if you try talking to other EV drivers and ask for their opinion, I’m pretty sure most of them would tell you exactly the same. If the “council’s” chargers are (much) more expensive than other public chargers, it looks like this wasn’t very well planned…
Eddie is totally correct, some PodPoint chargers only cost 28p per kW so I always seek out the cheapest option.
There are even some 22kWh chargers that are no cost to use because they are slower, some supermarkets still have these as well as the 7kWh chargers.
Perhaps some pressure from BCP to encourage MER to lower their rates when they are funded in this way would be better, if not I’ll be sticking to my PodPoint network
The existing Mer chargers in the car park at West Bay are convenient to me but within days of my ev purchase the council introduced park charges whilst connected. My Hyundai Kona charges at 10 kw per hour so the £2 per hour park charge adds 20p per Kw hour making it more expensive than a liquid fuel car. Also the park is closed at 10 pm until 8am. Dorset council are not green but greedy.
Hi John – sorry to hear you find the charging and parking prices high. The electric vehicle chargers are installed and operated by Mer – this service is administered separately to the Dorset Council car park service and charging prices are managed by charge point operator Mer.
Please note that parking is free in West Bay Road Car Park between 6pm and 10pm.
Katie
what about free parking for electric cars whilst plugged in and charging?