How to make 'charging anxiety' a thing of the past
Since electric vehicles (EVs) hit the market over a decade ago, so-called ‘range anxiety’, the fear that your EV will not have enough charge to reach its destination has been a stress for drivers.
That’s mostly been down to two reasons:
1) The limited battery capacity of early EV models, and;
2) The limited availability of EV chargepoints across the UK.
With newer models of EVs now having much greater battery capacity and efficiency, ‘range anxiety’ has begun to fade. However, the availability of chargepoints continues to be a major roadblock to large-scale adoption and remains a source of worry for drivers.
For businesses, this challenge poses a huge opportunity, not only to play a critical role in developing the national EV chargepoint network, but to attract and retain customers. Due to rapidly growing investment in EV chargepoint infrastructure across the public and private sectors, the issue of availability is gradually being addressed as an increasing amount of EVs join the road.
Destination charging can decrease charging anxiety
Hospitality, leisure and retail businesses can create the correct charging options by understanding why EV drivers suffer from charging anxiety. Our research found that 67% of EV drivers find it stressful thinking about charging availability for long journeys.
On any given day, EV drivers have several thoughts running through their minds. Here are three of the most common:
Taking a break, and therefore an opportunity to charge, whilst on a long journey to your destination is advisable. An EV driver can have a comfort break and charge up, this ties in with rule 91 of the Highway Code (stating a break from driving every two hours should be taken).
领英推荐
But what about when they arrive at their destination? Are they right to feel anxious? What can businesses do to help?
Offer the right charging at your destination
When an EV driver arrives at a destination for retail, leisure, hospitality or to stay in a hotel, they must feel comfortable that their car can achieve the charge they require for their journey back.
Businesses can install EV charging infrastructure and confidently tell EV drivers charging is available, reliable, and that the correct type of charger is on offer for their visit. This gives drivers the convenience they are in need of, reducing and in most cases eliminating their charging anxiety.
Minimise charging anxiety further: allow booking in advance
Offering drivers the ability to book charging in advance should also be on the priority list for destination locations. Our research found that 81% of drivers must wait for an EV charging point. It’s a negative statistic that might put people off certain businesses.?
Our research also discovered that 67% of EV drivers will pay a premium to reserve a charging bay. Also, 33% of these respondents would pay up to ￡5 per day for the privilege of doing so. This demonstrates that charging anxiety is a real problem and EV drivers are looking for destinations to provide the right solution whilst willing to pay a premium for peace of mind.
Accessibility and convenience for EV drivers
Destination charging must become more convenient for EV drivers when the industry moves to the mass market. Indeed, the charging on offer must be frictionless to encourage EV adoption.
Hospitality, leisure and retail businesses can play a vital role in this, whilst maximising revenue by using the correct charging infrastructure. By carefully considering the user experience, you can match or slightly increase dwell time when drivers are charging. This presents the opportunity to further benefit revenue created by chargepoints, for example, improving hotels' Total Revenue Per Available Room (TRevPAR), while eliminating EV drivers' charging anxiety for good.
To find out more about how EV charging can benefit your business, click here to get in touch with our team of EV experts
Absolutely! Charging service anxiety is a whole lot more real than vehicle range anxiety. Which is why our EV charging digital twin (Iris) is geared towards improving charging reliability.