For most trips you do not need to charge at all. A car left parked for a fortnight loses very little, and the question that matters is whether you have the range to get home when you land.
Charging availability is the thing people research first and the thing that changes their trip least.
How much charge does an EV lose while parked?
A small amount, through standby drain. Modern electric cars use a little power keeping systems awake, and the figure across two weeks is usually modest rather than alarming.
Cold weather increases it, as does leaving features like remote preconditioning or sentry-style monitoring enabled. Turning those off before a long trip is more useful than finding a charger.
The practical consequence is that you should plan around the range you arrive with, not the charge you hope to gain.
Treat a charge as a bonus rather than a plan. Arrive with enough range to get home and nothing about the car park can go wrong.
When does charging genuinely matter?
You arrive with a low battery after a long drive to the airport
Your journey home is long and you would rather not stop after a flight
You are away for a month or more, where standby drain becomes meaningful
Winter travel, where cold reduces both standby efficiency and usable range
If none apply, book on price and transfer time exactly as you would with a petrol car.
Do UK airport car parks have chargers?
Many do, both on airport land and at off-airport sites. Provision has improved considerably, though bays remain limited relative to demand.
The important distinction is between a car park that has chargers somewhere and one that guarantees you a charging bay for your booking. Those are different products and usually different prices.
What should I check before booking an EV bay?
Is charging included or charged separately? Many sites bill the electricity on top
Is the bay reserved for your stay, or first come first served?
What connector and speed? A slow charger over a fortnight is fine; a rapid one may be needed by others
Will the car be moved off the charger once full? Some operators do this to free the bay
That last point surprises people. A charging bay is not the same as a parking bay that happens to have a charger attached, and the difference matters if you expected to return to a full battery.
Does meet and greet handle EVs differently?
Often better, and it is worth asking. Several operators offer charging as a paid extra and return the car charged.
Tell them it is electric at the point of booking. Drivers need to know, and some operators cap which vehicle types they will accept — particularly for higher-value models.
It also removes the bay availability question entirely, since they manage the compound rather than you competing for a space.
What about self-park sites?
With park and ride you park the car yourself, so a free charging bay is a bonus and a full one is simply bad luck. That is fine when charging is optional.
If you genuinely need the charge, book a site that guarantees the bay rather than one that merely has chargers listed among its facilities.
Is there any risk to leaving an EV for a fortnight?
No more than any other car, and in some respects less. There is no fuel to go stale and no engine to sit cold.
The sensible precautions are the same as for any vehicle: photograph the car before you leave, remove valuables and anything showing your home address, and note the bay number. Leaving the battery somewhere in the middle of its range rather than at either extreme is the one EV-specific habit worth adopting.
Does an EV change which car park suits you?
Only if you need the charge. Otherwise the usual logic applies unchanged.
Length of trip, departure time and who is travelling still decide between long stay, off-airport and meet and greet. An electric car does not make a distant site better or worse value.
The one place it tilts the decision is a long drive home after a late landing. If you will arrive with limited range and want the car ready rather than needing a stop, a meet and greet operator offering charging is worth the premium on that specific trip.
A practical approach
Arrive with enough range for the journey home
Turn off remote monitoring and preconditioning before you travel
Book a guaranteed EV bay only if you actually need one
Tell the operator it is electric, especially for meet and greet
Check whether electricity is billed separately
Have a backup charging stop in mind on the route home
Compare what each operator actually offers at Manchester, Birmingham or Bristol rather than assuming chargers are universal — provision varies far more between operators than between airports.