Looking for a convenient and cost-effective place to park and charge your EV? At Riverside West Car Park, we will soon be offering safe and secure car parking at the heart of Wandsworth, complete with six EV charging bays.  Available on-demand (subject to availability) we can keep you EV safe, secure and topped up during your stay in London.

We will process all EV charging payments via Pod Point – our preferred third-party payment app. As it can be difficult to find available public EV charging points in London at most times of the week, we advise charging your EV in Riverside West Car Park.

Please note, if you are not a Riverside West Car Park permit holder, then you will be required to pay for your entrance ticket once you have charged your EV and before you drive out of the car park.

Where Can I Find EV Charging Points Near Me in London?

Websites and services such as Zap-Map, Google Maps or Open Charge Map can show you where to find electric-car charging stations, many of which will be free to use. Once you find a charging point, click or tap it to see whether it’s free to use. Apps are a useful way to gain access to this information while you’re out.

There is no specific free EV charging scheme in place in the UK, but there are many thousands of free charging points across the country.  Unsurprisingly, densely populated cities like London are home to a vast network of free charging points, which anyone can use. 

Public car parks (like those attached to supermarkets and shopping centres) are good places to find free charging points.  Major supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Aldi in particular all incentivise EV drivers with free charging at some locations. 

You will also often find free EV charging points at some hotels, leisure centres, parks, restaurants, and sports facilities. However, it is important to remember that in all instances, you must be a paying customer to use these free charging points. 

In addition, free public charging points charge EVs at a comparatively slow speed. Enough to give your car a quick top up, but not nearly enough to ready your vehicle for a long journey.  You may also have to deal with queues for available EV charging points, and there will often be several drivers waiting to take advantage of them before you.

Most EV drivers charge their vehicles overnight at home, or at their workplace during the day. This enables them to keep their batteries topped up at all times, without having to use paid or public EV charging points. 

Across London, public charge points can be found in a wide variety of on-street locations, and in key destinations like shopping centres. 

London has gradually been rolling out a rapid charging network, translating to a much faster and more efficient EV charging. Depending on the type of vehicle you drive, an 80% charge can be achieved at one of these rapid charging points in just 20 minutes. Paid EV charging points at conventional filling stations also replenish batteries at this rate. 

Elsewhere, the vast majority of charging points work much slower – typically around 5 to 8 hours to fully charge a car. Most free charging points you will encounter in London are slow chargers, providing a basic top-up rather than a full battery. 

Zap-Map is a UK-wide map for EV drivers looking to find nearby charging points, and covers the whole of London. It also provides detailed information on which chargers are paid or free, and charger speeds.