The inconsistent quality of the vehicle charging experience is impacting on UK fleet’s engagement with electric vehicles according to charging specialist Chago UK.
The high numbers of chargers that are out of service, combined with the slow growth of the charging network, are both major barriers to fleets currently embracing the EV revolution, it says.
James O’Neill, Chago UK director, said: “We see many chargers on our travels that are out of order which is crazy.
"This is generally caused by pre-emptive maintenance not being carried and out and poor quality components that are failing which is inexcusable.
“Fleets carrying out their own due diligence into the current infrastructures are witnessing the inconsistencies of the charging experience, particularly in public areas.
“The experience for current EV users is often frustrating and will need to change if fleets are going to fully embrace electric vehicles onto their choice lists.
"At Chago we have a different approach to management information as we link the fleet operator to the cloud so they can see true live data on driver charging activity as opposed to generating monthly historic reports.”
The reason for Chago’s change in strategy was the huge amount of calls it was getting from car park providers, corporates, transport groups and energy companies intent on growing the charging network in one form or other.
O'Neill said: “We believe that over the next one to two years the charging infrastructure will grow more rapidly than at any other time in history.
"Funding seems to have been freed up, including the £7.5m workplace charging scheme, and everyone is realising that the slow growth of the charging infrastructure over the past five years has hampered further growth in EV sales."
bob the engineer - 03/12/2016 18:58
Additionally, the vast majority of chargers out there are weedy low power ones in places you would rarely want to stay long enough to get a worthwhile charge. At least at the (now useless) rapid motorway services ones you could get useful power in 20 minutes which many of us would stop for anyway for a wee and a coffee. It would be best to scrap the thousands of feeble ones and spend the money saved on the ones in good locations that can be upgraded to rapids. Unfortunately we all know the millions the government set aside to help the system grow will all go on consultants and research fees without a single extra plug with juice in it appearing anywhere. Suffice to say my next car may well be another hybrid, but it may well not be plug-in.