Choosing an electric car can help you save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

While the benefits to local air quality from eliminating exhaust emissions are clear, generating power to recharge batteries does displace emissions from the vehicle to power generation elsewhere. This is still much better in terms of air quality and CO2 emissions than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine and will only get cleaner over time as the UK electricity supply moves towards being zero emission. Over its lifetime, a typical EV emits around two-thirds less greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent petrol car, even accounting for battery production and disposal.

In many cases, an EV is cheaper to run than a petrol or diesel car, with lower maintenance and repair costs. Charging at home, particularly if you charge overnight on an EV energy tariff, makes running an EV considerably cheaper. It is predicted that someone buying a new EV next year will recoup the additional upfront cost within 5 years.

Not everyone is ready to make the switch to an EV, however, don't let the misinformation that is out there sway you. The Energy Saving Trust debunk some of the common misconceptions about electric vehicles on their website. In addition, Zapmap have a wide range of guides for people wanting to learn more about electric vehicles – a useful read if you are thinking about making the switch.

Chargepoints are categorised by power rating. There are four main types of chargers available: standard (from 3kW up to 7.9kW), standard plus (from 8kW up to 49kW), rapid (from 50kW up to 149kW) and ultra-rapid chargers (150kW and above). They are used in different settings, depending on how long a vehicle is likely to be parked up.

Standard chargers are designed to refuel a car over several hours such as overnight and tend to be in more residential locations, whereas rapid chargers tend to be used at locations where people may only spend an hour or two, like a town centre car park. Ultra-rapid chargers are often used where people want to refuel as quickly as possible.

At present, through a concession contract with chargepoint operator Wenea, we are identifying sites across our managed car parks for additional chargepoints to be installed, including rapid chargers.

According to the Zapmap Price Index, the weighted average price to charge an electric car on the public charging network in February 2026 was 54p/kWh on standard/standard plus chargers and 76p/kWh for rapid/ultra-rapid chargers.

Using an average efficiency EV* this equates to 16 pence per mile and 23 pence per mile respectively. The cost will vary depending on the location, tariff, energy cost, battery capacity, charging speed and charge level.

Chargepoint providers will have their own live maps showing locations, real time availability information, tariff and connector type. Please see the Wenea live map and the SWARCO Econnect live map for chargers installed in council car parks. You will find more information on our electric vehicle charging locations page.

If travelling further afield, companies such as Zapmap have a UK-wide map of electric car charging points that helps electric car drivers locate and navigate to their nearest EV charging point.

At present, through a concession contract with chargepoint operator Wenea, we are identifying sites across our managed car parks for additional chargepoints to be installed.

The private sector will contribute significantly to the number of chargepoints being installed, including through off-street destination charging such as those in supermarket car parks, forecourt charging and rapid charging at motorway services.

Standard chargers

• In 2013 and 2014, 12 electric vehicle chargepoints were installed in 11 council car parks under the Plugged in Midlands grant scheme: 6 locations in Hereford city and 1 location in each of the 5 market towns. Prior to this there were no public chargepoints available in the county.
• This original network consisted of dual standard chargers capable of supplying 7kW of charge from each of two sockets and can be accessed using a Type 2 connector.
• From 2013/14 until November 2022, electricity from the standard chargers was provided free to all chargepoint users.
• In June 2016, bpChargemaster plc took over the network and replaced all the chargepoints during the period 2016 to 2019. All standard chargers were managed and maintained as part of the bp pulse network.
• In 2022, Wenea were awarded a concession contract for the expansion of the chargepoint network in council car parks across the county.
• Wenea replaced all existing 7kW chargepoints (apart from Shirehall, Hereford) when they took over the network in 2022 and the electricity used became subject to a charge. The current tariff amounts are shown on the live maps.
• The locations and original installation dates are shown in the table below, together with the date of the most recent replacements.
• The chargepoints in Ross on Wye and Bromyard were transferred over to local Town Council ownership in 2016.

Rapid chargers

• In 2020/21, 3 rapid chargepoints were installed by SWARCO on behalf of Highways England.
• The rapid chargepoints are located in council car parks in Hereford, Leominster and Ross on Wye and were installed to support EV drivers using the A49, which is part of the strategic road network. 
• The 3 rapid chargepoints are capable of supplying 50kW of charge using tethered cables. Electricity from these chargepoints is subject to a tariff. The current tariff amounts are shown on the live maps. The locations of the rapid chargepoints currently available are included in the table below.
• Expansion of the councils chargepoint network in public car parks is being carried out through the concession contract with Wenea. Current plans are for standard plus and rapid chargers to be installed at several Council owned car parks across the county.
• Installations of these new chargepoints in council car parks began in 2024, and the first few installs have been completed (highlighted in bold in the table).

All parking bays serving chargepoints in council car parks are reserved for electric vehicles (EVs) whilst recharging only.

From installation in 2013 up until April 2017, parking for electric vehicles recharging was free and there were no maximum parking times.

In April 2017 normal parking charges were applied to all chargepoint parking bays and a maximum stay of 4 hours introduced.

Since March 2020 all EVs recharging are allowed 30 minutes free parking after which time normal parking charges apply. The 4-hour maximum stay remains.

Two of the chargepoint parking bays at the council offices at Plough Lane are restricted to electric pool vehicles only. 

The Council is not responsible for the repair, maintenance or replacement of any of the chargepoints in its car parks. This is the responsibility of the Chargepoint Operator (currently Wenea), who are responsible for all aspects relating to the installation and running of the chargepoints.

An electric vehicle strategy for Herefordshire has been adopted and forms part of the council’s Local Transport Plan. An internal working group was set up in 2021 and worked in consultation with the Energy Saving Trust on identifying the key roles for the Council to support the switch to low emission vehicles as part of this Strategy.

Policy LTP ZLV 1 in the council’s Local Transport Plan 2016-2031 commits the council to working with transport providers and businesses to encourage the use of more efficient vehicles; and supports increasing the availability of charging points for electric vehicles on Herefordshire Public Services owned premises.

There is no budget allocated to the installation of electric vehicle chargepoints. All installations currently rely on government funding.

All contracts currently planned or in place for chargepoints in Council car parks are using the concession contract model which incurs no cost to the Council other than officer time. 

On-street residential chargepoints will be installed in 2026 through the LEVI pilot funding scheme as part of a consortium of local authorities. 

In addition to the above, we are part of a larger consortium of local authorities preparing to procure more on street chargepoints through the government’s main LEVI fund. Final numbers are to be confirmed, and installations are likely to take place over several years beginning in 2026.

Herefordshire Council does not currently permit recessed cable gullies due to liability and maintenance issues, although we are monitoring trials taking place in other areas of the country.

The team at Herefordshire Council currently leading electric vehicle infrastructure projects is the sustainability and climate change team. They can be contacted via email at electricvehicles@herefordshire.gov.uk