FAQ for charging in the UK

If you charge at this charge point with Direct Access via the qr code, the payment is via credit card or Apple Pay / Google Pay. After you have agreed to the tariff for charging, you will be prompted to enter your credit card details or to authorize Apple Pay / Google Pay. As soon as this is finished, charging can start and continues as long as you are plugged into the socket.

As soon as you start charging, your bank pre-authorises (reserves) £20 to ensure it’s available for you to pay with. If you have mobile banking, you may see this amount pop up. When you finish charging, we tell your bank the real amount you spent, they deduct it, and arrange to unreserve the pre-authorised amount. This process can take a few minutes to a few days depending on who you bank with.

You can see the maximum charging current of the respective charging spot on the mobile website before you start the charging process.

All ubitricity charge points are installed according to local health and safety standards. The lamppost charge points are installed near the edge of the kerb meaning that the traditional trip hazard of trailing cables is reduced. Additionally, we encourage users to ensure their cable is tucked away during charging, to further reduce trip hazards to pedestrians.

At peak times, energy costs are much higher due to extra costs charged by electricity distribution networks.

In the UK, there is a huge peak in electricity demand between 4:00PM and 7:00PM, when people typically arrive home from work and school. The same goes for plugging in EVs. Most of our users plug in and start charging at peak times. During peak times, especially in winter, electricity costs much more than in off peak times. ‘Smart Charging’ option. Smart Charging schedules your charging session to start at an off-peak time when electricity prices are lower.

We’ll lock your cable in place once you’ve selected our Smart Charging option. We won’t send any power to your car until the peak period ends. At the end of the charge, just unlock your cable as normal.

The LED light on the charge point will turn green to show that your session has started – we just won’t send any power to your car until the peak period ends. Depending on what type of car you have, you may see a different message in your car app.

Please ensure your cable is plugged in properly.

Please unplug your cable and start the process again. Once you have entered your payment details please wait for a connection between the car and the charge point to be established. Once a mobile connection has been successfully established, the button at the bottom of the payment page will be visible, and you need to click it to start charging.

Some EV models require a different plug-in sequence for our charge point to connect to the vehicle successfully. Please try again using the following sequence:

Step 1: Unplug the cable from the charge point.

Step 2: Scan the QR code

Step 3: Connect your cable to the charge point.

Step 4: Allow the charging event to start. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate the charge session. Once on-line connection has been automatically established by the charge point you will be able to enter your payment details (or select a payment card previously stored on you Smart Phone). Continue to follow the instruction to commence your charge session.

Step 5: Once charging has started plug your cable into the car.

Try to plug in the cable a little tighter into the charge point, then unplug again. If it’s impossible to remove your cable, please contact our support team. Do not try to remove the cable by force! This could cause damage to the cable.

1. Your car may already have a fully charged battery, please check your battery level.
2. This could be due to a faulty charge point, please check for the correct LED colour during the connection process (BLUE when the socket is available to use, then ORANGE when the cable is plugged in but the charge event has not started, then GREEN when charging).
3. You may not be plugged in correctly, please unplug your cable and reconnect the cable correctly.
4. There may be a local power outage.

If the solutions above, do not work please call our customer service team on call who will be happy to help.

Due to technical issues in the distribution grids, the electric current can be interrupted from time to time. Normally, this shouldn’t be a problem as the pauses in supply are very short. But even if there should be a longer shortage of electricity, there’s no need to worry: You only pay for the electricity you have actually charged.

In this case, a subsequent data transaction enables charging by using an expiring certificate that actualizes itself when reconnecting online.

The security of your data is very important to us. Payments are handled by a secure third-party payment provider and are compliant with the usual online banking standards.

Please make sure that the URL in your browser starts with mysimplesocket. This will help you to avoid fraud attempts through QR codes that are stuck over.

ubitricity is preparing for rapid growth in the UK with a goal to install 50 000 electric vehicle charge points in the UK by the end of 2025. This contributes to Shell’s wider goal of installing 100,000 chargepoints in the UK by the end of 2030.