I’ve lost £2,000 after being forced to ‘waste’ my money on electric car because of ULEZ – the charger doesn’t even WORK

A DRIVER has claimed that he is £2,000 out of pocket after buying a hybrid car because his home charger doesn’t work.

Derek Cross claims that there’s a quick and easy fix for the problem, but that his energy provider won’t help him.

Retired publisher Derek bought himself a Peugeot hybrid in an effort to save money and go green after his old diesel motor became unaffordable thanks to the ULEZ charge.

And, in order to take advantage of cheaper charging overnight, he also invested in installing a domestic charging point at his home in Tonbridge, Kent.

To have this put in, he had to spend a whopping £2,000 to purchase the charger, while also upgrading his property’s electrical systems to cope with the extra demand.

He claims that all this required was swapping out two wires carrying power into his home to a set that met the required standard for the larger usage.

This was, according to Derek, meant to be done by his energy provider So Energy.

But when he contacted the firm on August 1, he received an automated reply and allegedly nothing else for more than two months.

Derek told SunMotors: “The two wires that bring electricity in from the road had to be upgraded.

“I got in touch with SO Energy and asked them to do it and since then I’ve heard nothing.

“I’ve tried to contact them several times, I’ve emailed the managing director and nothing.

“So I’m stuck and I can’t use the electric part of the car.”

Not only did this apparently leave Derek out of pocket for the now-useless charger, but he claims that he is incurring extra costs by paying high petrol prices rather than being able to take advantage of much cheaper home charging.

This means that he could be missing out on up to 30 miles of range per tank that could be made up by cheap electricity.

SO Energy got in touch with Derek within three hours of The Sun contacting the company for comment to direct him to its complaints resolution team – almost two months to the day after his initial email.

The next day, he told us that he received a call offering to come and carry out the necessary work.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “Thank you for raising the case of Mr Cross with us. 

“The delays in resolving the issue arose through a combination of Mr Cross contacting us through an email address not related to the account in question, and also operational challenges associated with So Energy systems communicating with non-So Energy installed EV equipment.

“We have spoken with Mr Cross and the primary account holder and resolved the email address issue, and have confirmed a date when we can replace his smart meter to ensure his EV charger can become fully operational. 

“We pride ourselves on providing the best possible service to our customers, but it’s clear that on this occasion the delays in resolving the issue have fallen below our own high standards, and we apologise for this.”

It comes after a Tesla EV was filmed bursting into flames while sitting in a flooded garage following Hurricane Helene.