While more than 80% of EV users have access to a charger at home, a similar proportion (75%) are unable to charge their EVs at their place of work, according to the results of a new survey from Zapmap.
With more than 1,450 EV drivers questioned in the latest Zapmap EV Charging Survey, the results provide a detailed insight into the charging behaviours of EV users in the UK.
A key issue revealed by the survey is the low number of EV charge points at the workplace. Of those questioned, only 15% of drivers charge at work with no access at all for 53% of EV drivers in the sample surveyed; as compared to 81% who have home-based charging facilities.
Furthermore, discounting the almost 400 respondents that answered ‘does not apply’, either because they work from home or do not have a workplace as such, the percentage of drivers with no access to workplace charging rises to 75%.
This new finding gives support to the focus for the latest round of EV funding announced earlier this month, which includes up to £10 million for the provision of EV charge points at workplaces and homes with no off-street parking.
As expected, the survey shows that the vast majority of EV users (93%) use public charge points, the remaining 7% citing availability (lack of), charging cost and complexity as the three most common reasons for not using public chargers.
More interestingly, of those that did use public charging facilities, around a quarter (23%) used them more than once per week, a quarter (25%) once a week, 28% used them around one per month, a fifth (19%) used them less than once per month, with the remainder specifying other responses or ‘not sure’.
As highlighted in a previous Zapmap survey in 2015, charging facilities play a significant part in influencing where EV drivers park. Of the latest responses, the vast majority (87%) EV of drivers choose to park where there is access to EV charging (48% sometimes, 39% always). Only 13% of plug-in car drivers don’t consider charging needs at all when looking for parking spots.
As might be expected considering the extent of the Electric Highway network, service stations are the most popular type of public charging location with 65% of drivers regularly making use of the charging facilities. Public car parks (35%), retail car parks (32%), and local authority car parks (29%) are the next most popular destinations.
Interestingly, ahead of on-street parking and Park & Ride sites, dealership forecourts sit fifth in that list, with 20% of drivers regularly using manufacturer supplied charge points. The argument that EV drivers make good use of a manufacturer’s facilities is made even stronger when looking at Tesla drivers. Of those questioned, 128 are Model S drivers. with 126 of them regularly using the Tesla Supercharger network.
Analysed by network, Electric Highway takes top spot in terms of public networks used, with 70% of respondents regularly using the network’s charge points. Charge Your Car comes in at second with 46% of drivers using the national network, while Chargemaster’s POLAR network complete the podium in third at 34% of those questioned.
Survey stats: The Zapmap survey was conducted on-line during September 2016 generating 1,463 completed responses by EV users. Respondents came from across the UK with 54% stating that their main EV was ‘for private use only’, 25% ‘for personal and business use’ and 16% classed a ‘company car for personal and business use’. Regarding EV models represented in the sample, Leaf owners made up 44% of the sample, with the Outlander PHEV’s 12%, Renault Zoe 12% , BMW i3 10% and Tesla Model S 9%.
