Electric vehicle charge points installed at QA
Kelly Brown
Patients and visitors to Queen Alexandra Hospital will now have access to eight new electric vehicle charging points.
The public chargers, located in dedicated EV charging bays on the ground floor of the new North Car Park, will be available to use 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
An additional ten charging points have also been installed at the Trust’s park & ride facility for staff commuting to work using an electric car.
It is part of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust’s pledge to help reduce its impact on the environment as set out in its Green Plan which reveals how the Trust will continually reduce carbon emissions of its operations and also support the growing number of electric cars on the roads.
It is hoped the new charging points will help reduce the carbon footprint of patient and visitor travel, which currently represents six per cent of the Trust’s overall carbon footprint.
Mark Orchard, chief financial officer at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said: ‘We are delighted to now be able to offer patients, visitors and staff the option of charging their car whilst attending appointments or driving to work.’
To use the electric charging points, drivers will have to download the eCharge app before use from either Apple or Android app store.
‘Users should only use the spaces when charging their vehicle which will be monitored by the car park operator.
The chargers use
astandard type 2 charging socket delivering a charge of up to 22kwH and users will need to ensure they have brought their type 2 charging cable to make a connection.
A charge will be made for use.
As of the end of March 2023, there are thought to be over 735,000 fully electric cars operating on UK roads.
More than 265,000 battery-electric cars were registered in 2022, which spells a growth of 40 percent on 2021 figures.
Demand for electric vehicles shows no sign of slowing down with latest figures suggesting that they now occupy a massive 32.9 per cent of the current market share.