- The UK took the record last year as the biggest EV market in Europe by volume, whilst electric car sales across the country continue to grow.
- This surge in demand for EVs goes hand-in-hand with increased demand on the country’s public charge point operators (CPOs) – making unwavering reliability and uptime even more crucial, to satisfy both current EV owners and boost the confidence of prospective EV buyers.
- With EV adoption set to continue growing ahead of the 2030 ZEV mandate, what steps are CPOs taking to ensure their charging infrastructure is up to scratch – and what help is available to help CPOs hit said reliability targets?
Keeping driver satisfaction for public charging high
It’s estimated that around 40% of UK households do not have access to off-street parking, which is a group that will heavily rely on public charging facilities once the EV transition is in full swing. For this group to adopt EVs and utilise public charging networks, they need to be confident that charging stations on their route will be fully functioning when they arrive. Public satisfaction with public EV charging is already rising, but still stands at an average satisfaction score of around 64%, according to a recent survey by Zapmap – indicating considerable room for improvement across the CPO industry.
Even for those drivers that can charge at home regularly, longer EV trips will still necessitate the use of the public charging network, so a reliable network is just as crucial for this group too. Additionally, with consumer-facing awards like Zapmap’s Best EV charging networks list, which takes into account reliability as a key criteria, maintaining high standards has become paramount for all operators.
Satisfying public charging legislation
Public image and satisfaction is not the only reason for CPOs to maintain high levels of uptime and reliability, however. Many public chargers in the UK will now need to meet the UK’s Public Charge Point Regulations, which mandate that all of an operator’s charge points that have power outputs of 50kW or above must meet an average 99% uptime figure across these chargers, over a twelve-month period.
Amongst the other various aspects of the Public Charge Point Regulations, CPOs also need to provide on-site telephones that offer assistance to customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The stringent enforcement of these rules once again underscores the importance of ensuring compliance.
Who can help?
This is where firms such as Barron McCann are filling in a crucial gap in the charging industry. Barron McCann has historically provided IT maintenance and installation for major firms such as Papa Johns and Pets at Home, but additionally moved into the EV charging space in July of last year. By recently becoming NAPIT-approved electric contractors, it is translating its traditional IT expertise, thanks to its permanent deployment of travelling engineers and a 24/7 help line.
Not only can Barron McCann offer its maintenance expertise, emergency repairs, and 24/7 help desk to help existing CPOs meet reliability targets and customer support legislation, but it also offers a turnkey solution for new public charging infrastructure – starting from sourcing and installation of chargers, to ongoing maintenance, repairs, and support.
Scott Watson, Managing Director at Barron McCann, commented on what the firm can offer to CPOs:
“With almost 50 years of trading, we have created an extensive infrastructure to allow us to store, configure, repair and resell technology assets across a range of sectors. This infrastructure, made up of physical locations and full time employed Engineers is backed by an extensive support team, which allows us to cover the entire UK and ROI whilst guaranteeing strict SLA response times for our customers.
It was a logical step for us to move into the EV Charging sector, as we are able to leverage this experience to support CPOs in achieving the required reliability and ultimately uptime from their
installed charging estates. Our experience isn’t limited to on-site support, as from reselling technology solutions to our in-house Technical Workshop and Project Management Office based in Derby, we can deliver a true end to end service to the sector.”
Field service solutions such as Barron McCann’s will play a key role in delivering the next level of charging infrastructure. Creating and maintaining a nationwide field service network is costly and time consuming for CPOs – particularly smaller ones. Therefore, outsourcing this could be key for delivering higher reliability. The importance of uptime and reliability is not a novel concept, having already existed in other sectors before the charging legislation brought in by the government. Downtime has no winners, causing damage to both revenue and customer perception, and ultimately harming the industry as a whole.
What steps are CPOs taking so far?
We reached out to a couple of UK chargepoint operators, to ask what steps each was taking towards ensuring not just high reliability, but improved experiences – and how important these rules were for customer satisfaction.
Simon Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at InstaVolt, said:
“At InstaVolt, we’re committed to delivering the next level of public charging infrastructure, making it easier than ever for EV drivers to charge. With over 1,800 chargers across the UK and growing, we’re continuing to expand our network – both our strategically located roadside ultra-rapid chargers with premium partners such as McDonald’s, Costa Coffee, and Co-op, and our ultra-rapid hubs like the new Winchester Superhub opening in March. This flagship site will feature 44 ultra-rapid chargers and an on-site café, providing a best-in-class charging experience.
We’ve always maintained exceptional reliability, consistently achieving over 99% availability, keeping drivers on the move without worry. But the overall charging experience – ease of use, accessibility, and convenience – is just as important. That’s why we’re working closely with our partners and landlords to make charging seamless and stress-free for all drivers. Where we build our own hubs, like Winchester, we have full control over site design – ensuring all 44 bays are fully accessible in width, with three dedicated access bays. As we continue to scale, we remain focused on delivering a robust, reliable, and customer-focused charging network that meets the needs of both the driver of today, and tomorrow.”
Chris Day, UK Communications and PR Lead at bp pulse, said:“bp pulse is making it faster and more convenient for UK drivers to charge their EV’s by installing rapid and ultra-fast chargers in the best possible locations. To give drivers the confidence to make the switch to electric, we are creating a network with the power, reliability and customer experience the UK needs.
Our focus is on hubs pairing charging capacity with power. We’re opening our hubs in places where people need them – urban areas, trunk roads, motorways and destinations such as retail parks. Each hub will be able to charge a minimum of six vehicles at the same time, with the majority using ultra-fast 300 kW chargers. We want to offer EV drivers a range of options for when they’re charging – whether that’s an M&S store, or a forecourt with a Wild Bean Café or proximity to other amenities.”
Credit: Theo Binns, Electric Drives
https://electricdrives.tv/delivering-the-next-level-of-charging-infrastructure/
