Most on-street EV charging in Brighton & Hove gets cheaper from 15 October

More than 500 of Brighton & Hove’s electric vehicle chargepoints change hands on Thursday 15 October, and most charging on them will get cheaper. Brighton & Hove City Council’s¹ contract with Blink Charging UK has ended, so its standard, fast and rapid chargepoints are moving to two new operators, Char.gy and Believ.

If you charge on a Blink point now, the council’s advice is to get to know the new providers and check where your nearest chargepoint is. From the switch you can pay through the Char.gy and Believ apps, or through compatible third-party charging apps.

What it costs

The council has published the old and new rates side by side. In its table, Char.gy prices apply to standard chargepoints and Believ prices to fast and rapid ones.

• Standard, overnight: 55p with Blink, 39p with Char.gy
• Standard, daytime: 55p with Blink, 59p with Char.gy
• Fast, overnight: 55p with Blink, 41p with Believ
• Fast, daytime: 55p with Blink, 53p with Believ
• Rapid, overnight: 73p with Blink, 48p with Believ
• Rapid, daytime: 73p with Blink, 58p with Believ

That means one rate goes up: daytime charging on a standard chargepoint, from 55p to 59p. The other five come down, the biggest drop being rapid charging overnight, from 73p to 48p. All the standard chargepoints are also being replaced with new Char.gy units.

More on the way

The council says 500 new chargepoints have gone in since March, with 600 more planned for the next six months, and work on 50 new rapid chargers begins this month. It says 86% of households are now within a five-minute walk of a public chargepoint, up from 83% in 2025. Around 1,600 more are due over the next three years, and 6,000 by 2040.

It is also drawing up a pilot to fit almost 200 pavement gullies for homes without off-street parking, paid for by the Department for Transport’s EV Pavement Channel Grant. A gully lets a charging cable run safely through the pavement from the house to a car parked on the road.

“It’s really pleasing the cost of charging will be coming down with the switch to new operators,” said Councillor Trevor Muten, the cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure, in a council statement. “We want a network that’s affordable and sustainable for our residents, businesses and visitors.”

Brighton and Hove News² also reported the switch.