Electric vehicle drivers should make sure to take advantage of free charging, as it could get them thousands of free miles and save them hundreds of pound.
If your local supermarkets - or the place that where you park when shopping - offers free EV charging, you might be missing out on 34 cost-free miles each week.
According to research from Vanarama, if you top up your car when shopping every week, you'll have to spend £133.02 less on home charging per year.
The van leasing company found that charging during an average weekly shop that lasts 41 minutes would add 1,742 cost-free miles across the year.
That’s a quarter of the average UK driver’s yearly miles (6,800 miles), meaning you could effectively drive for free for three months of the year, according to the experts.
Vanarama’s research calculated the cost of electricity that drivers are saving by not charging at home, based on the current electricity price of 34p per kWh. Over the year it's £133.02 in savings.
They worked this out by calculating the percentage of the Kia Niro EV's battery that would be charged using a 22kW charger in the 41 minutes that a person is shopping.
According to Zap-Map’s latest figures, there are 1,343 free chargers un Scotland as well as 283 rapid chargers that are free. They are concentrated in and around Glasgow.
Supermarkets that are currently offering free charging include Sainsbury’s, Lidl, and Aldi, which are able to offer the additional benefit of free fast charging.
This comes after major supermarket Tesco began charging customers 28p for EV charging which led to some saying that they would now shop elsewhere.
A Tesco spokesperson told Birmingham Live : "These changes will improve access to chargers for all our customers, and enable continued investment in our charging network across the UK."
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