Southampton Airport Adds EV Chargepoints
The chargepoints, which are less than a three-minute walk from the departure lounge, are free to use for those staying in the car park. Local drivers are also encouraged to stop by and use them while enjoying a coffee from the comfort of the terminal building. And with customers typically staying in the short stay car park for anything from a few minutes to a week or more, the chargepoints give drivers the flexibility to either top up or fully charge their EVs, depending on the duration of their stay.
The Pod Point chargepoints were installed in response to increasing demand from customers. Six are for customer use while one is for airport vehicles. Southampton Airport has calculated that the chargepoints saved 205kW in their first five weeks of operation, equivalent to saving 143 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and 350 miles driven by an average passenger car.
Dave Lees, Managing Director of Southampton Airport, said: "The number of drivers switching to EVs is increasing exponentially. These drivers need access to public charging as they go about their lives, and we need to make sure we're meeting the needs of this particular group of customers. We're also pleased to be helping build the UK's charging infrastructure with this installation.
"In the future we may install more chargepoints, but for now we'll monitor usage of these along with feedback from our customers. And, we'll be tracking our C02 emissions to see what savings we are making in this area."
The airport's new chargepoints have been added to Pod Point's Open Charge map.
