We love to travel. To discover. Explore new roads. But today, we face a challenge. How can we continue to enjoy these beautiful, but vulnerable landscapes, more sustainably?
To meet this challenge BMW & National Parks UK have joined forces in a powerful 3-year partnership - The Recharge in Nature Project. Our shared aim and commitment is to enhance the electric car charging network and support vital nature restoration, biodiversity, sustainable tourism and wellbeing initiatives across all 15 National Parks, so we can help these extraordinary landscapes to thrive for generations to come.
OUR NATIONAL PARKS.
There are fifteen stunning National Parks located across the UK. Visited 104 million times every year, The National Parks are vital, with 92% of those surveyed see the parks as important to personal health and wellbeing*.
THE RECHARGE PROGRAMME.
Currently, many EV drivers worry that the Parks may not have enough public charging points. In fact, areas like the National Parks are sometimes referred to as ‘charging deserts’ - bereft of all, or most public charging options. We want to ease that anxiety and allay fears by adding charging stations near major routes and busy locations that currently have little or no support for electric vehicles.
Discover more about The Recharge Programme here.
THE RECHARGE IN NATURE FUND.
In addition to ‘The Recharge Programme’, BMW UK are also working with National Parks UK to support locally delivered initiatives, which focus on vital nature restoration, biodiversity and wellbeing through ‘The Recharge in Nature Fund’. These initiatives, one in each National Park, will help the National Parks to progress faster and with greater impact in high priority areas.
Discover more about The Recharge in Nature Fund here.
AN IMMERSIVE JOURNEY THROUGH THE LAKE DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK.
To celebrate our first chargers being installed, award-winning travel filmmaker and photographer, Finn Beales has made a fully immersive film recorded in binaural sound, to help you experience the slow sounds of nature to its fullest. Enjoy the beauty of our most treasured landscapes as we join Finn on his slow, relaxing journey.
* Taken from Amalgamated NPA Visitor Data, 2018 - supplied by the National Parks.
** BMW commissioned Jigsaw Research, an independent insight agency, to undertake a survey using research data from a nationally representative sample of 1014 car drivers in Great Britain. There was also an additional boost sample of 110 battery electric vehicle drivers, in order that this subgroup could be looked at separately with a greater degree of confidence. The research data was gathered via an online questionnaire, that ran during October 2022. Research was conducted for BMW by Jigsaw Research, an independent international strategic-insight agency with an exclusively senior team. Data integrity, validation and analysis were performed by Jigsaw Research. Data and outliers were validated in accordance with standard research industry rules, disciplines and best-practice approaches.
*** Based on research by the University of Derby's Nature Connectedness Research Group and experiences at National Trust sites, research conducted by Miles Richardson for the University of Derby shows that if you can connect a child aged up to 11 with the natural environment, they are more likely to exhibit sustainable behaviours later in life.