EV charge points are most used in county

TWO electric car charging points in Henley are the most used in Oxfordshire.

The chargers in the King’s Road and Greys Road car parks were used more than 13,000 times last year.

In King’s Road there are 14 EV charging points while in Greys Road there are 12.

Both car parks are run by South Oxfordshire District Council and the charging points are operated by EZ-Charge.

Data was taken from 250 chargers across 20 park and charge sites in the county.

Phil Shadbolt, chief executive of EZ-Charge, said: “I am delighted to see the uptake of EV charging in Henley.

“At the planning stages we believed that Henley would be an excellent site for EV charging and this is now proved to be the case.

“It has been a lot of hard work to get both Henley sites up and running with a reliable and easy-to-use charging solution.

“We are all very pleased to see the uptake and the user comments reflecting so positively on these sites.

“We are now working closely with the district council to see how we can improve these sites further with even better charging provisions.”

After Henley, the next most used chargers were in Woodstock and Chipping Norton.

Dave McEwan, a member of the town council’s transport strategy group and Greener Henley, said the Henley Car Club was boosted with the addition of an electric car in April.

The MG4 joined two Toyota Yaris hybrids in the club, which was launched by the town council in 2021 to make Henley more environmentally friendly by reducing car use.

Co Wheels, which runs the pay-as-you-go scheme, supplied the car, which has a range of 200 miles.

The MG4, which was voted car of the year 2023, has been based at the park and charge hub in Greys Road car park.

Councillor Tony Hoskins, who chairs the council’s climate emergency working group, said: “I am very pleased at the high usage of EV chargers in locations like Greys Road car park.

“Like me, many of those locals with electric cars have their own home chargers but the EV chargers in our car parks cater for our visitors, which benefits Henley’s visitors.”

Kate Oldridge, who chairs Greener Henley, said: “Electric cars are better for the environment than petrol/diesel cars. They emit less carbon and air pollutants over their lifetime, even taking into account the embodied carbon in the production process and the electricity required to power them. 

“However, we do appreciate they are not affordable for many, though the cost is coming down. Whatever kind of car you have, the best thing you can do for climate and nature is to try to use it as little as possible. ”