EV charging at Gatwick airport

[Stephen-733s2]

This will be my first holiday with an ev. We’re flying from Gatwick and that’s too far away from our house to get there and back on one charge. Does anyone know of any parking places that can charge the car whilst we’re away please? Or price wise, are we better off just stopping somewhere and charging on the way there or back please?

[JQ]

I can't answer your question about Gatwick, but we did something similar this year. Airport was 240 miles from home and I do regret not booking parking with charging as it meant we had to charge the car 20 mins into our journey home, which was tiresome after we'd already been travelling for 6 hours.

I'll be doing the same journey next year and have every intention of using a car park with EV charging which I found via Google.

[Stephen-733s2]

Thanks a lot. Yeah I'm thinking unless its a lot more money, worth parking somewhere with charging.

[Gerrymm11]

Not quite what you are looking for, but might help...

https://www.mediacentre.gatwickairport.com/news/lo...

[TheDeuce]

We normally use meet and great parking - where a third party parking company collects your car at the drop off and then stores and charges it ready to drop back with us when we return.

It's often actually cheaper than an airport car park, and easier. Just check the reviews ahead of booking, there have a been a few cowboy outfits - we've never had an sort of issue though. We pay £20 for a charge from our regular meet and great operator at Stansted.

The other option is to stop at the nearest rapid charger to Gatwick on the way down and fill the car, it's then ready and (I assume depending on distance) charged to get you home.

[TheDeuce]

Gerrymm11 said:

Not quite what you are looking for, but might help...

https://www.mediacentre.gatwickairport.com/news/lo...

Twenty six 350kw chargers

That'll sort it. And a useful place to grab a coffee ahead of the drive home, to banish away the glasses of wine you didn't have on the flight home

[samoht]

TheDeuce said:

The other option is to stop at the nearest rapid charger to Gatwick on the way down and fill the car, it's then ready and (I assume depending on distance) charged to get you home.

You could also use this as ~30 mins of the buffer you'd normally allow for traffic on the way to the airport, i.e. if traffic is normal you arrive early and charge first, in the event that traffic is heavy and you're delayed, you can postpone charging until your return to recover some time.

[Stephen-733s2]

Thanks very much guys. All really useful

[raspy]

Use the gridserve chargers that have just opened at gatwick airport. I recently had to drop someone off, needed a quick charge to get home, and plenty of availability on a weekday lunchtime. By the time I had gone inside to get a coffee and use the toilet and come out, I had more than enough charge to get home.

[Frimley111R]

Drive down, leave your car here and get shuttled into the airport. They charge your car while you're away (but you do have to stay overnight) and collect you on the way back.

https://www.hookwoodlodge.co.uk/

[bbr92]

We recently did this for the first time in an EV. Allowed an extra 30mins and used the Gridserve EV forecourt at Gatwick - https://www.gridserve.com/electric-vehicle-chargin... fully charged the car before parking as normal using the long stay carpark so we had a full charge when we get home. Very easy and worked well for us.

[Frimley111R]

bbr92 said:

We recently did this for the first time in an EV. Allowed an extra 30mins and used the Gridserve EV forecourt at Gatwick - https://www.gridserve.com/electric-vehicle-chargin... fully charged the car before parking as normal using the long stay carpark so we had a full charge when we get home. Very easy and worked well for us.

Could you prebook it so that you knew it was free? Must have been slightly annoying having to sit with all your luggage in the car, at a forecourt for 30mins?

[TheDeuce]

Frimley111R said:

bbr92 said:

We recently did this for the first time in an EV. Allowed an extra 30mins and used the Gridserve EV forecourt at Gatwick - https://www.gridserve.com/electric-vehicle-chargin... fully charged the car before parking as normal using the long stay carpark so we had a full charge when we get home. Very easy and worked well for us.

Could you prebook it so that you knew it was free? Must have been slightly annoying having to sit with all your luggage in the car, at a forecourt for 30mins?

Probably more like ten minutes, unless they arrived with a very low battery or a very slow charging EV...

Mine would gain around 5-600 miles an hour on those chargers.

[bbr92]

Didn’t pre book and loads of free charges. We only charged for 10 mins in the end to top up but I allocated 30mins just in case as this was the first time we’d done.

[TheDeuce]

bbr92 said:

Didn’t pre book and loads of free charges. We only charged for 10 mins in the end to top up but I allocated 30mins just in case as this was the first time we’d done.

Glad you came back to clarify that.

In the last year or so, away from home, all my charging sessions have lasted only as long as I'd typically stop for in any case, I just parked up in the EV bay instead of a normal bay and tap my electroverse card and job done - I don't actually spend anymore time at motorway services than I used to in my diesel.

Actually I suppose I spend less time as I occasionally used to spend another few minutes filing up the diesel on the way out of the services..