A major “road divide” has emerged among electric car owners in Britain, with the vast majority relying on home chargers installed in their properties as their primary energy source.
Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) electric vehicle (EV) owners surveyed said they charge their cars primarily at home. By contrast, only 14 percent use the public charging network as the main electricity supply for their vehicles, which costs twice as much.
The report highlights the significant benefits in terms of cost and practicality for those living in properties with off-street parking, which in turn makes electric vehicles less attractive for those living in flats or houses without garages or driveways. vehicles. And it’s also contributing to the recent slowdown in electric car adoption.
Only 14% of electric vehicle drivers use expensive public charging points as their main source of energy, while 69% mainly use cheaper home chargers, according to a new report. This puts those without on-street parking at a huge disadvantage in the switch to electric cars.
The remaining 17 percent of EV owners surveyed said they use a combination of public and home charging, or charge their cars at their workplace.
However, leasing company Zenith found that more than half (52 percent) of electric vehicle drivers would face significant difficulties if they were forced to rely solely on public charging in a survey of nearly 2,800 of its customers. the company.
Charging provider Cord recently showed the disparity between a month of charging on public chargers compared to charging at home, with those who can’t charge at home being unfairly hit by much higher costs.
While charging at home during off-peak hours could cost as little as £17, the monthly cost of charging at home during peak hours was £56.
For those using the public charging network, you can expect to pay £109 a month when using a variety of devices.
The price difference is even greater if they connect exclusively to fast chargers; In this case, they can expect their monthly charging expense to increase to £155, which is almost three times the cost of using a home charger.
The cost of charging an electric vehicle at home, even at peak times, is approximately half that of using the public grid.
More than half (52%) of electric car owners would face significant difficulties if they relied solely on the public charging network.
Charging Provider Cable recently showed the disparity between a month of charging on public chargers compared to charging at home, with those who can’t charge at home being unfairly hit by much higher costs.
The research also found that, in the 12 months since it published its first EVX Report (EVXperience) last year, electric vehicle drivers have become less satisfied with the range of their cars (7.7/10 down to 6. 7/10) and charging experience, dropping from 8.1/10 to 7.4/10.
The report comes a week after the Chancellor failed to take action to reduce the financial burden of owning an electric vehicle without off-street parking.
Calls to reduce VAT on public charging from 20 per cent to 5 per cent to bring it in line with home charging in its spring budget were ignored, as were calls for a fresh boost to incentives for electric vehicles to boost demand public.
The auto industry condemned the government’s lack of electric vehicle policies in the budget, saying it had “missed a huge opportunity” to boost sagging electric car sales.
Official figures show that sales of electric vehicles to ordinary drivers fell by almost a fifth in the first two months of 2024.
Of the almost 40,000 new electric cars registered in January and February, only 6,500 were purchased by individuals. The rest were acquired by fleet leasing companies as a result of lucrative tax benefits, including the salary sacrifice scheme.
Falling public appetite for electric vehicles is starting to cause concern, especially when it comes to Britain being on track to meet its Net Zero targets.
However, the good news is that despite these concerns, EV drivers told Zenith they remain optimistic about the future of EV adoption in the UK.
The Government will have 300,000 public charging points across the UK by 2030 and Zapmap data suggests this target is achievable
More than four-fifths (82 percent) say they expect charging infrastructure to improve in the next three years.
The Government will have 300,000 public charging points across the UK by 2030 and Zapmap data suggests this target is achievable.
It predicts that the 100,000th charger will be installed no later than August 2025, and will snowball from then on.
Both data from Zenith and charging location provider Zapmap predict that “range anxiety” could become a thing of the past as the size and quality of the charging network grows.
Tim Buchan, chief executive of Zenith, said: “The number of battery electric vehicles on the road has been increasing rapidly, so it is no surprise that building a public charging network to support it was a huge task.”
“Progress is being made – the number of charging points grew by 46 per cent in January 2024 compared to last year – and multiple innovations are in play, such as converting BT green boxes into charging centres.”
Like other experts, Zenith is calling on the Government to do more to help the switch to electricity.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) wants the Government to scrap VED rates combined with lower VAT on sales of new electric vehicles and reduced VAT on the public charging network to make electric vehicles more attractive to new buyers.
Without these tax incentives, manufacturers will find it difficult to meet the required Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate targets because private buyers will not want to convert to electric vehicles.
Failure to meet the ZEV threshold, which starts with a 22 per cent share of all sales in 2024 and rises to 80 per cent in 2030, will result in fines of £15,000 for manufacturers per vehicle below the target.
Electric future: ZEV mandate will force automakers to sell increasing volumes of electric vehicles by 2035
Responding to the lack of incentives for electric vehicles in the spring budget, Fiat UK said: “We are sleepwalking towards an electric vehicle crisis.”
Following the disappointing lack of incentives for electric vehicles in the budget, SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “Reduce VAT on new electric vehicles, review vehicle taxes to promote rather than punish the use of electric vehicles and ending the VAT ‘pavement fine’ for public vehicles.” The charge would have energized the market.
“With both government and industry having legal requirements to achieve net zero emissions, there is still much more to be done to help consumers make the switch.”
Bucham echoes this: ‘There is a serious risk that the transition to electric vehicles will be delayed if worsening public perception of the grid is not addressed.
“To achieve this, we need the Government to equalize VAT on public charging – a missed opportunity in the Budget last week – and increase capacity by accelerating network connections for charging point providers.”
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