NetX, the project behind a three-socket EV charger, has revealed the results of its charging survey.
The Innovate UK-backed project asked both EV and non-EV drivers about how easy it is to charge an electric car, one of the biggest questions for prospective EV drivers according to the study.
For payment solutions, 85% of people said they wanted to pay for public charging by contactless debit or credit card payment or automatic payment on plug in. Only 10% wanted to pay by smartphone app and less than 5% wanted to pay by RFID card or tag.
When asked about where they would charge an EV, 82% of respondents said they would charge most often at home, with 8% at a workplace.
And when questioned about accessibility, over 42% of respondents said that they occasionally or often had to queue or to give up or could rarely find an available charger.
Furthermore, only 22.75% of respondents said that public rapid chargers always worked.
In reply to the question ‘Why did you buy an electric vehicle?’, ‘reducing environmental impact’ was the top response, closely followed by ‘low running costs’.
In order to help increase the provision of charging, NetX is searching for suitable public charging locations to install its three-socket chargers.
The project aims to install around 100 NetX chargers, which can extend an existing single chargepoint to share 7kW fast charging with three vehicle.
According to NetX, this would enable it to hit its target of charging 300 EVs simultaneously.
Mike Potter, managing director of DriveElectric, said: “With the UK now on course to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, we need to make sure that everyone has the ability charge an EV.
“The NetX technology has the potential to triple the number of EV charging sockets in a cost-effective way, potentially allowing people who can’t charge at home more opportunity to charge at work or at public charging sites.”
The NetX project is due to end in November.
