Electric vehicles

Electric Vehicles (EV) are taking an increasing share of the new vehicle market with 315k Battery-only EVs (BEV) sold in the UK in 2023, up 18% on 2022. Tesla Model Y was also the single biggest selling car in Europe in 2023.

Epping Forest district has the largest number of BEVs per head on the roads of all Essex districts and the growth curve is rising steeply. BEV plus London electric cabs owned locally now exceed 1,700 vehicles, plus around 900 plug-in hybrids (PHEV).

The public EV charging infrastructure locally has also improved significantly in the last year with a more than doubling of rapid chargers (50 kW+) and new ‘fast’ chargers (7-22 kW) including 17 in Epping’s Cottis Yard (Qualis) multi-storey car park. With new chargers announced in early February in Waltham Abbey and Loughton, we now have 14 ultra-rapid chargers from Instavolt across 5 council-owned car parks across the district.

We are working with Essex County Council (ECC) on a County-wide bid in 2024 for central government funding to provide many more lower cost ‘fast’ chargers, especially in areas with lots of flats and terraced housing where off street parking and charging are difficult or impossible. A small scale on-street pilot from the 2022/23 round should see ECC install a small number of on-street charging bays in Loughton, Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell this year.

We are also updating our tenant guides and policies on installation and use of EV charging at Council-owned properties. If you are a council tenant, you must speak to us before having a home charging point installed. Remember, trailing charging cables across pavements or grassed areas is not permitted and even if you have off street parking, we recommend an approved installation engineer visits your home before going ahead just in case there are other reasons a home charger is not possible.

Providing public EV charging supports our key policies of reducing road transport emissions, helping meet the Interim Air Pollution Mitigation Strategy for a minimum 10% conversion of petrol cars to Ultra Low Emission Vehicles by 2025, and working towards becoming a carbon-neutral district by 2030.

• GOV.UK – Common misconceptions about electric vehicles

Latest News

• Tell Essex County Council where you would like to see on-street EV chargers
• EV charging points installed in Debden – 24 July 2023
• Essex County Council EV strategy Consultation
• Electric charging points installed in Ongar – 21 March 2023 
• EV charging points installed in Loughton – 23 March 2022
• Business Matters – EV case studies from local businesses
• Essex County Council Secures Funding for EV charging

Grants

Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) grant schemes for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure: guidance and application forms (for freeholders of flats and business premises).

• Grant schemes for electric vehicle charging infrastructure

Find a charge point

Council owned car parks

Cornmill Car Park, Waltham Abbey

• Address: Cornmill Car Park, Waltham Abbey, EN9 1RD
• What3Words location: invest.monks

Bansons Lane Car Park, Ongar

• Address: Bansons Lane car park, Ongar, CM5 9AR
• What3Words location: actor.data.wishes

Burton Road Car Park

• Address: Burton Road Car Park, Loughton, IG10 3ST
• What3Words location: rush.jets.notion

Oakwood Hill East car park

• Address: Oakwood Hill East car park, Loughton IG10 3TZ
• What3words location: nails.enjoyable.farmer

Traps Hill car park

• Address: Traps Hill car park, Loughton IG10 1SZ
• What3words location: drops.soccer.charge

Visit www.instavolt.co.uk for pricing and other information at EFDC owned car parks.

Qualis – Cottis Yard

• Address: Cottis Lane, Epping CM16 4BL
• What3words location: ripe.slurs.turned

Visit www.pod-point.com/ for pricing and other information at Cottis Yard

Private sector chargers

Bakers Arms/Premier Inn, Sewardstone

• Address: The Grange, Sewardstone Road EN9 3QF

BP Debden

• Address: The Broadway IG10 3ST

BP Harlow Gate

• Address: Potter Street, Harlow CM17 9AG

Epping Forest Shopping Park

• Address: Langston Rd, Loughton IG10 3UE

Harlow Water Gardens

• Address: Water Gardens Shopping Centre, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1AN

Lidl Waltham Abbey

• Address: Cartersfield Road, Waltham Abbey EN9 1JD

Morrisons Loughton

• Address: 246 High Road, Loughton IG10 1HW

North Weald Bassett service station

• Address: 215 High Street, North Weald CM16 6ED

Plants Galore Roydon

• Hamlet Hill, Roydon CM19 5JY

Shell Buckhurst Hill

• Address: 18-22 High Road, Buckhurst Hill IG9 5HP

Shell Epping

• Address: 24-36 High St, Epping CM16 4AE

Three Jolly Wheelers

• Address: 735 Chigwell Road IG8 8AS

Tesco Epping

• Address: 77-79 High Street, Epping, CM16 4BA

Tesco Waltham Abbey

• Address: Sewardstone Rd, Waltham Abbey EN9 1JH

Find a charge point near you

• Zap Map
• Plugshare
• Or use Apps or websites of individual networks

Off-street EV charging

This is the responsibility of Essex County Council. They are still finalising their strategy and funding bid submissions in this area but one thing unlikely in Essex is the large-scale use of streetlights to supply overnight EV charging.

On-street EV charging

This is the responsibility of Essex County Council. They are still finalising their strategy in this area but one thing unlikely in Essex is the use of street lights to supply overnight EV charging.

Want to know more

If you want to know more about our EV activities, or to register interest in more off-street charging options near you:

• Email transport@eppingforestdc.gov.uk

If you want to know more about on-street charging, visit the Essex County Council electric vehicles page where there is an enquiries email address.

If you want to contact your county councillor you can search for your county councillor using your postcode.