How to find free EV charging in London

Until recently, London’s PCO drivers with an electric car could find a good selection of free charging points across the Capital. The ability to charge a PCO car for nothing was just one more solid reason to switch from petrol or diesel to an electric car as a private hire vehicle.

Today, free charging stations for EVs are rare but they do exist – if you know how to find them. With the right mobile apps, plus a little detective work, you can easily pinpoint this handful of holdouts.

Let’s not pretend this is a perfect solution for private hire drivers. Free chargers are not quick and often have restrictions. They might have time-based rules or ask you to be a customer. Or both.

Even if you do locate one, the charging schedule must fit your driving habits. You won’t want to park-up to get a free recharge that takes several hours if it’s a busy time for Uber fares.

This guide will help you find free charging points as well as understand their pros and cons. It also includes general tips on how to save money charging an EV and some alternative charging networks.

How many EV charging points are in London?

Overall, there are now more than 64,700 charging points across the UK, as of the end of June 2024 says Zapmap. This is a significant rise from the 50,000 milestone reached in October 2023.

And the rate of installation is rising. In the first four months of 2024, the number of new charge points installed per month increased from 1,400 to 1,900 compared to the average of the previous year.

The number of charging points for electric cars is growing especially fast in the South East and Greater London has more than 20,000 alone.

Are there any free EV charging stations?

Yes, but not many. Of the 20,679 charging points in London, only 264 appear in Zapmap as free to use and available to the public. That’s only 1.3 per cent of this whole geographical area – and not all of these free chargers are truly accessible, for reasons we’ll explain.

In fact, the number of public free chargers has almost halved since June 2022, when there were 465 in the Capital. The reason is simple: electricity is now too expensive.

Sadly, the idea of ‘destination charging’ (i.e. places that give drivers free EV charging while they visit) is fading. Certain supermarkets, shopping centres, museums and council-owned locations, such as sports centres, have either stopped or changed the rules. For instance, Tesco and Lidl no longer do so at all.

Many employers who once gave free charging perks to staff have also tightened-up on public access.

All of that said, let’s explore how to find the last remaining free EV charging devices in London…

How to find free charging stations in London

For PCO drivers, time is money, so you don’t want to waste hours hunting free public charging points you cannot use. Apps can fast-track your way to free EV chargers and there are two main options: Zapmap and PodPoint.

Zapmap (zap-map.com)

The best-known finder app. It displays the location of 95% of UK public charging points throughout the country, in either map or list format. Crucially, you can narrow your search to highlight only the ‘free-to-use’ locations under payment types. Don’t forget to also select the ‘public access’ filter.

Remember to select all networks, all locations and the correct connector type for your PCO car. After that, open each location and check the ‘Info’ and ‘Chat’ tabs to see recent tips on if it’s still free and open to the public.

You might get lucky and find one near where you live or prefer to work. The app also offers a smart route planner so you can (hopefully) find a free charger en route to your destination, where you can also stop for a food break. The basic features are free but subscriptions apply for the fancier ones.

PodPoint (pod-point.com)

The other popular app for using free charging points in London is PodPoint. This originally had a large number of freebies, including Tesco and Heathrow airport.

These options have dwindled and you cannot easily search for free options within this app. However, after you locate those that do remain in Zap-Map, PodPoint is the most likely way to access them.

The app is solid in many other ways and there’s no membership fee, so it’s worth having on your phone.

Which supermarkets offer free EV charging?

There was a time when many supermarkets and garden centres gave free charging to customers but it has largely ended, due to high demand. The main exceptions are Sainsbury’s and Costco. Even these are only at highly selected stores.

Costco should be on every PCO driver’s radar. Three of its London sites offer 85 free charging connections between them (all 7kW) and they are in Hayes, Watford and Wembley. Costco membership is required, but one year costs just £26 for a trade account, or £33 for an individual one. If any of these locations is convenient, that membership will soon pay for itself in free charging.

The Sainsbury’s branches with free charging are at Chiswick, Sydenham and Wandsworth. Customers must usually spend £10 in-store to avoid parking charges. They also have a two-hour time limit and, again, the free units are all 7kW chargers.

This is more of a top-up rather than a full charge. Think of it like a sandwich, not a full meal.

Did you know?

Always check the terms– especially for overstay fees. These are parking restrictions if you stay longer than the period of actual charging. Operators charge these fees automatically, adding £10 for charges beyond 90 mins or £20 if longer than 180 mins. Overstay fees are generally for powerful on-street chargers (ie 50kW+) but the Otto Team has seen an increase in PCNs due to these, so watch out.

Do hotels offer free EV charging?

Like car dealers or gyms, a lot of hotels and pubs restrict free EV charging to paying guests but not all.

The David Lloyd Health Club in Acton has free chargers. If you happen to be a member, it’s a win.

The Hyatt Place at Heathrow offers one hour of free charging on a 22kW unit, or you can pay a £6 parking fee for five hours charging. Speaking of Heathrow, The Moxy Hotel near Heathrow has six free EV charging points in the car park for non-guest visitors if you pay £2/hour to park (or £12/day).

The Park Plaza in Park Royal lets you pick from one of its four 7kW chargers if you pay £13 for 24 hours of parking. This makes it a good potential spot for overnight charging.

Indeed, your best options for ‘free’ charging points are often public car parks – if you pay to park. See below for details of the new Uber partnership with Q Park.

How to get £750 of free charging from Uber

The new Uber PowerUp Package gives PCO drivers £750 of free charging vouchers from BP Pulse. That’s £250 a month for three months. There’s no subscription fee, and it’s open to the first 8,000 drivers who register.

After that, Ubers drivers get discounted BP Pulse charging rates of just 27p/kWh for the 7kWh units and 49p/kWh for the ones 50kWh and above. That’s a saving of about one-third on standard prices.

Did you know?

Uber drivers get access to special BP Pulse lounge facilities at the Q Park in Park Lane and Heathrow with free phone-charging while you wait. Every little helps.

What’s the fastest speed of free chargers in London?

The most powerful chargers that are free will deliver 22kW to your electric car. These are known as ‘fast’ chargers and will power a compatible EV with a 64.9 kWh battery (eg Kia Niro) in 2-3 hours.

The ‘slow’ 7 kW chargers are more common as no-fee charging options, but take around 8 hours to charge the same size of battery. Both tend to be found at common locations such as car parks, supermarkets, or leisure centres, where you are likely to park for an hour or more anyway.

Some finder apps – for example, PlugShare – show the 7kW units of privately owned homes who rent out their EV wallboxes as free. Obviously, there is nearly always a cost to use these location types.

If you want to know how long does it take to charge an electric car, we have a complete guide here.

Choosing the right app for free EV charging points

You are mostly limited to the two apps shown above for free EV charge points. Yet there are good reasons why you might need others, too, as many of these ideas also apply to paid-for charging.

For example, Octopus Electroverse or Ovo Charge (now powered by Bonnet) have great finder tools for paid charging and each gives significant discounts in return for a small monthly subscription.

New private hire drivers should know that the Uber Driver app does a solid job of planning routes with EV range in mind. It even suggests the best time and location to take a break for charging.

Check availability

It’s not enough just to know where are the free EV charging stations in London. To avoid a wasted journey or a long queue you must also see if the unit is still working, occupied, or reported as broken. Thankfully, most charging and finder apps now display real-time information about this.

Open an account

Even if you can find free EV charge points, you often need an account with its operator to use it. This is why it is so important to plan ahead, identify the site you’d like to use – and then download the relevant app. For instance, you might need ChargeFinder rather than PodPoint.

Access restrictions

Always check the specific access restrictions for free EV charge points before you go there. As mentioned, some are located inside a public car park with fees, while others belong to private companies that are either closed at night or purely for their own employees and customers.

Did you know?

You no longer need to own a Tesla to sign-up for the Supercharger network. It’s not free but it is good, with charging speeds of either 150kW or, on the latest units, 250kW.

The era of free electric car charge points in London seems numbered but this situation might change if energy prices drop again. And if you can find one that fits your working life, enjoy it while you can.

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