Most EV charging advice assumes a driveway. If you park on the street, the options are different — slower to set up, more dependent on your specific council, but genuinely workable in a growing number of areas.
Lamp-post and on-street chargers
Networks including Shell Recharge and char.gy have converted street lighting columns into chargers, typically running at 5.5–7kW — plenty for an overnight charge, just not fast. The main catch is that these don't come with a reserved parking bay: any vehicle, electric or not, can occupy the space, so availability depends on your street and the time you get there. Check what's actually installed near you before counting on it as your main charging plan.
Cross-pavement cable channels
A cross-pavement channel is a flush-fitted cable gully that lets you run a charging cable from your house, across the pavement, to your car parked at the kerb — without creating a trip hazard. These used to be effectively prohibited, but a growing number of councils (including Richmond upon Thames, Bradford, and Oxford at the time of writing) now run licensed schemes for exactly this. Typical installation costs run around £600–£1,200, with a grant available in some council areas.
Important: a cable channel gives you a way to reach your car — it does not give you a legal right to the parking space outside your house. Someone else can still park there on any given day.
The LEVI fund is expanding on-street charging
The Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund is the government's main answer to the driveway gap — money for local authorities to install residential on-street charging at scale. Rollouts are underway in a number of areas including the West Midlands, Portsmouth, and Greater Manchester, with most installations expected through 2026–2027. Coverage is still patchy and depends entirely on your specific council's rollout — check your local authority's website for what's planned or already live on your street.
Other options worth considering
- Workplace charging — if your employer has chargers (sometimes subsidised through the government's Workplace Charging Scheme), a single charge there plus occasional top-ups can cover a lot of weekly driving without relying on public rapid charging at all.
- Building a public-charging routine — use our Find a Charger tool to find a nearby fast or rapid charger you can fold into a regular routine (weekly shop, gym visit) rather than treating every charge as a special trip.
- Asking your council directly — on-street chargepoint schemes, cable channel licences, and LEVI rollout plans vary a lot by area; a quick email or look at your council's website often reveals more than it first appears.
What's actually available changes quickly and varies a great deal by street and council — treat this as an orientation to the options, not a guarantee of what's near you specifically.