Navigational signage
You should provide clear and consistent navigational signage to increase traffic to your site and help electric vehicle (EV) drivers locate your chargepoints and have a straightforward charging experience. You can use signage on motorways and other main roads to alert drivers to upcoming chargepoints. You can also use it to give information about the number, specification and accessibility of these chargepoints, as well as other amenities present at the site, such as restaurants and toilets. There is not yet a standardised icon design to indicate the presence of EV charging facilities.
Navigational signage should give drivers a general understanding of where chargepoints are located. Drivers may ignore signs indicating distance to chargepoints, if they are not clear how long it will take. You will need to consider an appropriate distance ahead of your charging infrastructure to place your signage. Feedback received by charge point operators (CPOs) indicates that drivers ignore signage if it is too far from their destination infrastructure, so it’s important to get this right.
You should also have navigational signage to the chargepoints at the site entrance and Parking bays adjacent to chargepoints should be marked clearly as EV only. East Lothian council encourage text to be put along the front of a parking bay to let people know it’s a charging bay.
Dundee council advocates the use of large ‘totem poles’ to help EV drivers locate nearby charging infrastructure. These poles also allow CPOs to showcase chargepoint availability and pricing, before drivers reach a site. However, planning permission must be sought if a totem is placed more than two meters away from a roadway and its location will need to be carefully considered to avoid any complaints about it ruining people’s view.
