“It’s a good idea to pay some bills, » he says. “But it is also providing a public service. People coming to Wembley or to events will be parking on the street and that is going to create a lot of congestion, so if you rent your driveway, it takes some of the pressure away.”
While Mr Sanghvi got his charger for free, others already own them to charge their own electric cars.
EV driver Joseph Gorham, 53, paid £350 for his charger. This is cheaper than the average cost because it came with his car. He now rents it out on YourParkingSpace, another parking app. He makes £1,000 a month from his four parking spaces in Brighton.
“I don’t do it specifically for an income – I do it because I think that the council in Brighton just charges so much money for parking and it doesn’t encourage people to come and spend in the city,” he says.
Mr Gorham says his driveway is constantly full of drivers looking for parking, and the number of people using his charger is on the rise. He has had around 13 drivers booking his spots specifically to charge their electric cars so far this year. He charges £10 per parking space for a 24-hour period and the optional use of the EV charger is included in the price.
It typically costs £1,000 to have a charger installed at your home, according to The Eco Experts, an environmental advisory group. It typically takes 20 months to break even with the money saved by avoiding public charging points. However, this can drop if the charger is rented out.
It costs £23.40 to fully charge the average electric car. To cover the cost of the electricity, a homeowner would need to be paid at least 34p per kWh. A typical 7kW charger would cost £2.38 for each hour the charger is used.
The cost of charging an electric car has risen from £10.30 in February 2021, as energy costs have gone up, but public chargers are so expensive that there is still money to be made.
“You have a lot of leeway if you want to offer a cheaper charging price than public charging stations, where the average cost is 60p per kWh – meaning a full charge will typically set you back £41.40,” Josh Jackman, of The Eco Experts, says.
He adds homeowners could make a profit of £74 a year if they rented out their charger for 40.8p per kWh for three hours a day, which works out as a 20pc profit margin. This would allow owners to still use the charger overnight for their own vehicle and reduce the payback period to just 18 months.
The profit may sound small, but drivers need to give themselves enough time to charge their own electric cars, which can take around nine hours.
All of those renting out their driveways said demand is far greater for affordable parking than for the EV chargers. Renting out a charger is less likely to be a lucrative venture for those who do not already own EVs and have to stump up £1,000 to get a charger installed.
In some cases homeowners will need to apply for planning permission if they wish to install a charger, such as if you live in a conservation area.
Caroline Bridgestock, 61, says her husband bought a £970 charger for their electric car 18 months ago. They charge £15 for half a day of parking, £20 for a full day and another £20 if drivers want to use the EV charger. They earn £300 to £400 a month for their two parking spaces.
Ms Bridgestock, who is retired and lives in southwest London, says people booking with them have complained about public chargers being out of service. Around 5pc of public chargers are not working at any one time, according to The Eco Experts.
“We’ve always got people asking for parking,” she says. “There was a chap living around the corner who was waiting for his charger to be installed and he booked with us. You get all sorts of people, but I’m sure that it will get busier and busier with the charging points as more people buy electric vehicles.”
Those renting their driveways can make up to £1,000 a year before tax, which is protected by the “trading allowance”. Any profits above this threshold must be included on their tax return.