Ready for take-off: EV parking at airports

Of all the journeys motorists make, one of the most time-sensitive is the drive to the airport before departing on a flight. For an Electric Vehicle (EV) driver, as well as worry about traffic jams, road works and airport parking there is the additional concern about coming back to a car with depleted charge.

The typical organised EV driver will set off to the airport with a full battery but, unless the airport is nearby, she may not have enough charge left to get home again.

In that scenario, she has two options. One is to stop on the way to the airport to top up with enough charge to complete the return journey. The second option is to break her journey after flying back and top up to be able to get home in the EV.

Both options bring with them the anxiety of encountering broken charge points or queues of EVs waiting to plug in. That’s annoying enough on the way home, adding to the travel time which has already included a journey to the departure airport and the flight itself.

But on the way to the airport, queues and charge points that aren’t working are seriously discomfiting. No-one enjoys feeling like they will arrive at the airport with too little time to spare.

A third way – EV park and charge

There is a third option. Book airport car parking which has EV charging bays. Great idea. But is there enough airport parking with EV charge points at the UK’s airports?

Anecdotally, the answer appears to be no. Official airport car parks (typically those closest to the terminals) have the kinds of numbers that used to be seen at motorway service areas and public car parks in the earliest days of EV adoption. A couple here, a few there, sometimes none.

You might encounter slow chargers (7kW, say) in the short stay car parks, which is about as much use as a chocolate airplane. Rapid charge points would be welcome here, for those dropping off or picking up passengers. Or you might find no charge points at all in the long stay car parks.

Aberdeen Airport has six 7kW charge points, Birmingham has five outlets, Bristol has twelve 7kW, Glasgow six, Gatwick has eight offering 22kW. London Heathrow has some in its many car parks. Some are free to use, others bill the typical costs found for public charging.

But there appears to be little provision for travellers who want to leave their car in an official long stay airport car park on a 7kW charge point whilst they are away, so they will pick up their car again with a full charge for the drive home.