UK EV owners seek alternatives to expensive home charging
The past two years of heightened inflation mean that many electric vehicle users in the UK are keen to find ways of keeping charging fees away from their household. A new study reveals three-quarters of users would prefer to avail themselves of public charging options, amd perceived predatory pricing practices of domestic energy providers.
While the start of the decade saw clamour for electric vehicles (EVs) growing – and some studies even suggested that they would become ‘the norm’ in the UK by 2030 – the reality has so far been underwhelming. With the previous UK government pushing back a long discussed ban on the sale of new combustion-powered cars, EV uptake is not anywhere near the levels imagined, and the charging infrastructure needed for wider adoption is still a distant target.
Amid this, a new study from Simon-Kucher has highlighted just how important that last factor may be in getting the UK back on the road to post-combustion transport. Polling over 2,000 EV owners across the US and Europe, the study explores shifting consumer preferences around charging access, speed, and pricing – key topics for the growing EV market.
At present, EV owners rely on home stations for 50% of all their charging needs. That rises to 52% in the UK, one of the highest rates anywhere – behind only Sweden and Denmark, where energy prices are generally cheaper.
This represents something of a sticking point for EV uptake in the UK, though. With energy prices having exploded in recent years, powering inflation trends that have left the average household more than £2,300 worse off, the convenience of recharging your vehicle from the comfort of your own home has understandably lost some of its lustre.
In this context, 76% of EV owners in the UK said they would like to combine public charging tariffs with household electricity. Stating it would help find savings for their household energy tariffs, this took precedent over convenience (at 43%), while the UK was far and away the economy most concerned with costs. For comparison, Only 58% of Dutch consumers and 57% of Danish respondents said savings were important to them.
Even more importantly, though, those considering EV ownership mirrored these responses. A 74% majority of UK respondents said they would like to charge publicly and at home to find cost savings – suggesting that the UK will need to re-double its efforts to deliver public infrastructure that has a lot of ground to make up on its continental counterparts. But according to Simon-Kucher’s researchers, doing so could open up significant opportunities for service providers.
More than half of respondents were open to different loyalty programmes, for example, including discounts and non-cash bonus points, for public EV charging. Meanwhile, 56% of current and future EV owners were interested in integrating loyalty programmes with existing rewards, like Miles & More and Payback. Payment service providers like Visa and Mastercard are quite popular in the US, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
They added, “There’s a growing appeal among EV owners in an integrated solution between a charging station and a partner site location. However, targeted incentives will be key in influencing consumer behavior as many still perceive these offerings as “nice-to-have”. But partnerships that allow customers to earn points for charging at CPOs and burned at partner sites, i.e. supermarkets or restaurants, could be the right approach for the future.”
