On Monday 13 November 2023, the Green Finance Institute, hosted a webinar to discuss utilisation of EV charging points across the UK’s Strategic Road Network (SRN). The webinar hosted figures across the industry including Jade Edwards, Head of Insights at Zapmap, Neil Madgwick, Head of Connections Service Delivery at UK Power Networks, Matthew Jennings, Commercial Leader of Pay-per-use Solutions DLL and Harry Bleasdale, Commercial Strategy Lead of Osprey Charging Network.
During the webinar, it was discussed that there is no industry standard definition or calculation for utilisation. Put simply, a charge point’s utilisation rate can simply be defined as the rate at which an EV charge point is used with the main two factors being time-based and energy-based. The key takeaways from the webinar were as follows:
- Jade Edwards mentioned that on average, charging points are in use from 3.5-4 hours per day – which Jade noted was collected from Zapmap data of around 70% of UK charging devices of Q4 2022. Jade also stressed that this data relates just to public charging and that a significant percentage use private charging (at home).
- There are various peaks and troughs in the UK’s charging network with data showing that within the SRN, Cambridge to Brighton has high utilisation rates whilst Peterborough to Great Yarmouth has a low utilisation rate – various routes along the SRN can be viewed on this link.
- There are also various peaks and troughs within the day with lunchtime being around the peak of utilisation.
- With an estimate of 3 million electric cars and vans on the roads in 2027/28, Neil Madgwick noted the importance of flexibility and how it is a critical tool in enabling net zero at the lowest cost for the customers served.
- Harry Bleasdale, referred to the fact that whilst Osprey have deployed their highest number of charging points ever this year, more needs to be done by the government to accelerate the transition to electric.
- The majority of the investment has come through the private sector and the key role of the government is to remove the ‘red tape’ whilst also providing economic funding to those areas where EV is not as prevalent.
For more information and for the report, please refer to this link.
