UK EV drivers keenest for car park charging
The UK’s Electric Vehicle drivers are the keenest to charge in car parks out of the five European countries surveyed by YouGov for the EV chargepoint manufacturer CTEK.
More than one in seven (15%) Electric Vehicle (EV) drivers surveyed in the UK said that a public or private car park would be their preferred charging place. The EV drivers use either a fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, or both.
That was the highest score recorded for car park charging in the YouGov survey of more than 11,000 people in five European countries, including more than 1,000 EV drivers.
A tenth of UK EV drivers are already charging in car parks, which suggests an unmet additional demand which car park operators can tap into to increase their revenue by attracting more EV drivers and generate additional income from fees for parking and EV charging.
The 15% of EV drivers in the UK who said they would prefer to charge in car parks were ahead of EV drivers in the Netherlands (12%), Sweden (9%), Norway (7%) and France (7%). The Dutch currently lead the way in car park charging, with 21% saying it is a usual charging location for them.
Cecilia Routledge, CTEK’s Global Director Energy and Facilities, said: “Our annual YouGov survey shows that UK car park operators have a real opportunity to satisfy an unmet demand from many EV drivers to charge whilst their vehicles are in car parks.
“As well as generating more income from selling electricity to their customers, car parks with a good number of EV chargepoints will put themselves on the map – literally so, when drivers consult online maps of chargepoints such as Zapmap – as a more attractive destination to park and charge.”
CTEK’s YouGov survey also discovered that only 29% of UK EV drivers say there is car park charging available near their home, one of the lowest responses in the five European countries surveyed.
And those car parks which do offer charging need to be wary of the UK EV drivers’ experiences of broken chargepoints and having to queue because there are too few chargepoints for the number of drivers wishing to use them.
Half of UK EV drivers (50%) now encounter broken public chargers at least one in four times when they arrive hoping to charge. Asked where they most often encounter broken chargepoints, 21% of UK EV drivers said at public car parks.
More than half (52%) of UK EV drivers have to wait to use a public charger at least one in four times. Almost one in five (19%) who encounter this find queues most often in public car parks.
Queues to charge and broken chargepoints are fuelling increased charger anxiety. The UK tops the chart of the countries surveyed for respondents agreeing there is not enough charging infrastructure for EVs.
Cecilia said: “Car park operators and their EV charging partners need to work harder on expanding and maintaining the charging infrastructure to reduce the frequency of broken chargers and queueing. Just as an available and working chargepoint in a car park is an attraction for an EV driver, a broken one or a queue is a reason to try a different car park next time.”
CTEK’s robust and reliable CC2 chargepoints are powering EVs in car parks across the UK. In one of the UK’s largest single EV chargepoint installs, 49 dual outlet CTEK chargepoints were switched on for visitors and residents at Battersea Power Station. Almost 100 EVs can now charge at one time in the underground car parks, enabled by CTEK’s dynamic load balancing.
And in Sweden, CTEK chargepoints are available at each of the 1,000-plus parking bays in the Norra Stationsparken parking garage. With the number of chargepoints per install on the rise, operators can tap into CTEK’s advice and assistance during network design and installation.
CTEK’s UK team works with installers and car park operators to develop complete, future-proofed EV solutions including software applications, load balancing and remote, online system management.
The CTEK survey by YouGov also found that almost one in four UK people (24%) say their next vehicle will be a fully electric or plug-in hybrid EV. More UK drivers intend to buy brand new EVs (12%) than new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles (9%). For used vehicles, ICE (29%) remains ahead of EVs (12% – 4% BEV and 8% PHEV).
Cecilia said car park operators should also take note of the YouGov findings on how people want to pay for their charging. UK EV drivers said their top three ways to pay would be: one app for all charge points (known as e-roaming) (19%); ‘plug & charge’ where the chargepoint automatically bills the car’s owner (19%); and with a bank card (17%).
Cecilia said: “Car park operators should also be exploring the emergence of a single payment option for both the parking and charging fees. CTEK chargepoints are already in use in France where drivers can plug in and pay through the Flowbird app for EV charging and parking at the same time.”