Which? calls for ‘urgent improvements’ to electric car charging infrastructure

A new damning report from consumer watchdog Which? has outlined the need for ‘urgent improvements’ to Britain’s electric car charging infrastructure if ministers seek to persuade more motorists to drive green.

Nearly half (48 percent) of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners said they struggle to find a public charging point that is in good working order.

Which? says the UK government needs to ‘quickly address’ a host of issues, namely poor reliability, payment difficulties and poor availability in some parts of the country, or jeopardize the country’s move to low-emission vehicles.

A survey of nearly 1,500 Which? Members who own an EV or plug-in hybrid find that three quarters (74 percent) are dissatisfied with the current state of the public charging infrastructure.

Two in five said they’ve driven to a device only to find it doesn’t work, while 43 percent say they’ve had “technical issues” that prevented them from charging as planned.

In addition to encountering faulty chargers, three in five of the panelists (61 percent) said they have encountered problems making payments – and this prevents many from accessing the network.

One in six (18 percent) who follow Which? that they now only charge their car at home or at work due to a lack of convenient payment options. This is despite a government directive for all newly installed public charging points to accept contactless card payments from 2020.

Another key issue highlighted by EV owners is the disproportionate availability of the 32,000 public devices across the country.

As official government data shows, there are 116 charging stations in the capital for every 100,000 residents of London. This compares to just 17 per 100,000 inhabitants in Northern Ireland, 27 in the North East and 29 in Yorkshire and the Humber, according to figures from the Department for Transport for the end of July.

While there are over 32,000 public charging devices in the UK, they are not evenly distributed across the region as this table shows

The survey found that nearly half of electric and plug-in hybrid car owners claimed their nearest public charging device was more than a 20-minute walk from their home.

Half of plug-in car owners surveyed by Which? said there is insufficient access to devices where they live, with 45 percent estimating that the nearest charger is more than a 20-minute walk from their home – a serious problem if you can’t park on the street and don’t have access to a home charger, which is the case for a third of properties in the UK.

A fifth said a lack of devices where they need them is the biggest reason they choose to abandon the public charging network entirely, while the same proportion of EV drivers said they have never used the public networks because there simply aren’t any. to be enough.

The report comes a day after the charging operators joined forces to sign a letter to the Chancellor calling for a reduction in VAT for the public network, with a tax four times higher than for domestic charges. This, coupled with rising wholesale prices for electricity, means that charging over the public grid is becoming more and more expensive – and in some cases makes driving an EV more expensive than a petrol car.

FairCharge, which has campaigned to cut VAT from 20 to 5 percent, says the government’s failure to act quickly to cut charging costs could strangle demand for low-emission vehicles.

In addition to reliability issues, three in five EV owners said they have experienced problems paying on public devices – and this is preventing many from using the network

A separate Which? a survey of general car owners found that a fifth (39 percent) said they wouldn’t consider an EV because there aren’t enough charging points.

The watchdog calls on the government to extend the planned reliability standard for the fast-charging fast chargers to all public charging points with different speeds.

This ‘reliability standard’ means that charging point networks must be in good condition on average 99 percent of the time.

Which? also urges ministers to ensure that its proposals for ‘payment roaming’ eliminate the need for consumers to navigate through multiple apps and cards to pay for charging.

Sue Davies, which one? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said: “Our research shows that public charging infrastructure for electric cars falls short as many drivers struggle to find reliable charging stations that are in good working order, have to navigate confusing payment systems or cannot rely on adequate charging. points close to their home or to guide them through a long journey.

“The government must act quickly to implement its plans to improve the consumer experience of using public charging networks by extending reliability standards across the entire network and ensuring that billing roaming proposals pay to charge much more.” make it easier.

‘Charging must be easy, reliable and seamless to support people in the transition to an electric car.’

Respond to the Which? RAC spokesman Simon Williams said a high-quality charging infrastructure will be a ‘key factor’ in helping more people move from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles.

“It is vital that chargers are reliable, easy to use and accessible, so we need to move quickly from the era where it is common to find a charger that is no longer in use to a time when it is a rarity,” he added. he to it.

‘In addition, public charging must be more competitively priced. That is why the RAC is campaigning together with FairCharge to reduce the VAT on public charging points from 20 percent to 5 percent, so that it is in line with domestic charging.

“We need to make sure that people without ramps are not penalized with higher loading costs, otherwise there is a very real risk that the entire net-zero transport strategy of the government will be undermined.”