Charging electric cars in Central London

Randomlettersandnumbers

Help.  Where can I fast charge my car for a few hours in London's West End without needing a bank loan?
I need to go to there back for the day to bring a mobility scooter to a relative.  No way can I do it on a single charge and I want to recharge while I am actually there, to maximise the time we get to spend together. I am trying to avoid parking at an eye watering cost since I can park on the street at a concessionary guest rate courtesy of my relative, so paying commercial parking rates is money down the drain.  If I have to pay stupid money on top of EV charging fees to use a charger, I can always just charge somewhere to or from London, but that will add time to my journey or minimise the time I can spend with them.
Looking at various websites, they tell me where I can charge within walking distance of WC2 but it is not clear whether I need to pay for a parking space on top of the charging fees. Some seem to be in hotels or car parks - is it standard they they would charge me to be there and then to recharge on top of that?  St Martin's Lane Hotel has an EV charging point, for example, and this is a PB Pulse place (normally good) but I will have to pay parking fees to charge - £9 for one hour, £36 for 5 hours, and it wasn't clear whether I would have to pay for the parking on top of that.  (Sure, no problem - just hang on a minute while I remortgage my house.)  There are no contact details for many of these places to phone and ask, and even when you do, the staff don't always know.
It's also stressful that the online maps each show different charging points, even ones not affiliated to a particular brand.  It's amazing what ZapMap doesn't appear to know.
Don't get me started on charging stations that charge per hour rather than per k/wh....
Gah, it is so confusing.
Thanks for advice.

Advocado

This is why I still have a trusty ol' diesel.  I'm letting all the look-at-me early adopters work all this out and I'll join in in about 10 years when all this stressful sort of stuff has been sorted.  And the inflated prices of EVs has come down.

Petriix

It varies by location. We got a free charge with moderately expensive parking (£16 for 5 hours) at Imperial College when visiting the Science Museum. That particular car park is only open to the public on evenings and weekends though.

Westminster offer 80p parking for 4 hours to all EVs and there are some on street chargers in that area. There are also some charges where no park fee is charged. Or you can find a supermarket with free charging for a couple of hours and/or find a rapid charger.

There are some Instavolt chargers at McDonald's or Podpoint rapids at supermarkets and there are a few rapid charging hubs. You just need to look on Zap-Map and Plugshare to figure out the best options.

Keep_pedalling

Different boroughs in London have different polices but if you are parking in the in the City of Westminster you only pay for 10 mins parking in an EV regardless of how long you stay. They will be no shortage of chargers, whether you are staying a few hours so you can take advantage of a destination charger, or need a rapid for a quick turn round.

Randomlettersandnumbers

Advocado said:

This is why I still have a trusty ol' diesel.  I'm letting all the look-at-me early adopters work all this out and I'll join in in about 10 years when all this stressful sort of stuff has been sorted.  And the inflated prices of EVs has come down.

The EV is not as straightforward as diesel but it is great to drive, gets me into Central London free and the cost evens out as I like to go places.  Genuinely, I would not go back from my EV (but I will still be glad when the technology advances and prices come down).

Advocado

Randomlettersandnumbers said:

Advocado said:

This is why I still have a trusty ol' diesel.  I'm letting all the look-at-me early adopters work all this out and I'll join in in about 10 years when all this stressful sort of stuff has been sorted.  And the inflated prices of EVs has come down.

The EV is not as straightforward as diesel but it is great to drive, gets me into Central London free and the cost evens out as I like to go places.  Genuinely, I would not go back from my EV (but I will still be glad when the technology advances and prices come down).

I'm sure the driving part is great - but it sounds like everything else is a bit of a pain.  Or to use your words, confusing and stressful.

uknick

Keep_pedalling said:

Different boroughs in London have different polices but if you are parking in the in the City of Westminster you only pay for 10 mins parking in an EV regardless of how long you stay. They will be no shortage of chargers, whether you are staying a few hours so you can take advantage of a destination charger, or need a rapid for a quick turn round.

Not quite right; you can only stay for a maximum of 4 hours in one space for the 10 minute charge.  You then have to change the parking bay you're in, albeit you need only go round the corner.

Glasseye

Advocado said:

This is why I still have a trusty ol' diesel.  I'm letting all the look-at-me early adopters work all this out and I'll join in in about 10 years when all this stressful sort of stuff has been sorted.  And the inflated prices of EVs has come down.

I can't wait until petrol and especially diesel cars are illegal. It's worth learning about the 40,000 people killed every year by air pollution and combustion cars are the single biggest driver of this. The government is currently in the supreme court over illegal levels of air pollution / inadequate strategy to tackle it, many of my friends suffer from asthma triggerd by car pollution and I basically hate breathing while I'm cycling across London.

And even if you only care about yourself, you pay a hella lot more for a diesel car in London I promise you.

The OP I think isn't aware of the simple options available - Source London (3,500 charge points across London) and Ubitricty to name a couple. Parking is included in the price. I basically effortlessly park within a 1-5 min walk of practically anywhere in central London (zone 1-2). Combustion cars can't park in those Source London spaces, so they're free for me.

Combined with the no raod tax, no ULEZ or congestion zone (always expanding + getting more expensive) I don't think you need to wait 10y for it to make sense.