Source London has this week released the results of a London EV driver survey revealing the latest views about the Capital’s electric vehicle recharging infrastructure.
Key findings of the on-line survey are that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of EV users in London would like to see more charging points and to have a unified standard charging infrastructure across the Capital.
More surprising is that, given a list of future potential options including the ability to book chargers in advance, have 100% renewable energy and access charging via a mobile app, the most votes are for a map showing the availability and status of points in real-time, with 82 per cent citing this service as ‘very important’.
While only 38 per cent of those questioned are satisfied with the overall performance of the Source London network (within the last month), 21 per cent are more satisfied than they were a year previously, with 44 per cent having not changed their level of satisfaction.
Interestingly, Source London report that EV user satisfaction is 50 per cent higher in all Boroughs that have signed up with Bluepoint; an indication that all Bluepoint London’s hard work is slowly paying off and they are beginning to move London’s EV network in the right direction.
The most overwhelming opinion overall, however, is that there are not enough charging points in the network, with 93 per cent wanting more. With Source London’s plans to move from 1,000 to 6,000 charging points within the next two years, will therefore go some way to addressing this issue.
Also revealed by the survey is that only just over half use their EV as often as they would like to – 53 per cent – and that the biggest barrier to using their EVs more is the lack of charge points (61 per cent). By comparison, EV range came in second at 27 per cent of the responses.
Other interesting facts revealed include that Google Maps is the most common tool to plan journeys in EVs amongst those questioned – 54 per cent – with Zap-Map just behind, used by 48 per cent of respondents for planning trips.
It is clear that EV’s are not just for occasional use too with 82 per cent used at least once a day and 15 per cent a couple of times a week. Commuting is the most common usage at 60 per cent of every day usage replies, though 44 per cent of users use their car a couple of times a week for food shopping.
To find out more about Source London, visit the Source London website. Alternatively, visit Zap-Map’s pages for more information on charging points, networks, and route planning.
All statistics and graphs courtesy of Source London research carried out by Populus. The survey was conducted online between 11th December 2015 and 11th January 2016 and elicited responses from 1,000 EV users in London.
