We’re introducing charges for our EV charging points this summer

From 1 August we will be introducing a charge for using the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points at our Colchester Campus.

We first introduced these charging points in 2017 and since then we have supplied over 228,300 kWh of electricity to EV owners and stopped 253 tonnes of carbon going into the atmosphere.

To encourage the use of EVs we initially made these charging stations free. We know that the carbon emitted from commuting is significant and by encouraging the use of EVs we are acting on our Climate Emergency action plan to minimise the carbon and environmental impact of the University's travel and transport activities including commuting, business, and research travel and encourage greater use of sustainable forms of transport where travel is necessary. It also ties in with Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption as all of our electricity is sourced from renewables.

Since 2017, the university had directly helped drivers by spending £30,000 to help them charge their vehicles. However, as electric vehicle ownership increases we can no longer support these costs and from 1 August 2024 there will be a fee of 50p per kWh to charge your vehicle on campus. To make sure this change works smoothly, we're working with Clenergy, who provide simple, fair and accessible vehicle charging. To pay for your charging you'll need to download and install the Clenergy EV app. All the details of how to do this are now available on our staff and student directories.

At the moment, we have twelve charging points at our Colchester Campus - six in the multi-storey car park and six in North Towers car park. However, we hope that we will be able to increase this number in future as more people switch to Electric Vehicles.

All of our electricity is obtained from 'green' sources. We have multiple solar arrays on our buildings across campus including the multi storey car park and the electricity we import from the national grid is also sourced from renewables. An average car emits nearly 27kg of CO2e for every 100 miles. By charging your car on campus, you can be sure the electricity used is the cleanest and greenest it can be, saving those emissions.

To help you as we switch to EV charging we will be available to answer any of your questions at the following times and locations:

• Innovation Centre, Mission Café area on Tuesday 9 July between 10am and 11am
• Silberrad Student Centre, Reception on Tuesday 30 July between 2pm and 3pm

You can also contact us by emailing [email protected].