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Motorway services topple supermarkets as most popular EV charging location

Home / Auto News / Motorway services topple supermarkets as most popular EV charging location

New research by Zapmap, the leading charge point mapping service, has revealed that motorway services and EV charging hubs have displaced supermarket car parks as the most popular charging locations in the UK.

This year, 55% of EV drivers they regularly stop at motorway services to charge, while 47% do so at EV charging hubs – these are up from 48% and 34% respectively last year.

This reflects the increasing number of charging hubs – which Zapmap defines as groups of six or more rapid or ultra-rapid devices – that are opening across the country.

At the end of November 2022, for instance, Zapmap data shows there were 99 open-access charging hubs, while at the end of November 2023 this more than doubled to 239.

In contrast, only 36% said they use supermarket car parks to charge their vehicles, down from 50% the previous year. The drop corresponds with the removal of many free-to-use chargers at supermarkets almost a year ago.

Jade Edwards, Head of Insights at Zapmap, said the “survey gives you a good indication of just how quickly the country’s charging infrastructure is developing”.

The research also showed that although 80% of respondents have a home charger, the vast majority of EV drivers continue to use public charging networks across the country.

Of these, national charge point operators Gridserve, Pod Point and InstaVolt are the most popular – with 36%, 34% and 34%, respectively, using them in the last six months.

As such, this year sees Gridserve has overtaken Pod Point in terms of being the network used by the highest number of respondents on a regular basis – although most used does not necessarily equate to highest satisfaction, as Zapmap’s recent charging network rankings demonstrate.

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Play your cards right with cinchCharge

We test the “faff-free” app and card that makes charging an EV much easier…

The great switch to electric vehicles is not without its issues. The high upfront cost of EVs, range anxiety and finding a public charger, to name but a few.

Then there’s the multitude of different companies providing chargers, each requiring registration, meaning some EV drivers have phones packed with apps or wallets loaded with (RFID) cards.

Anything that can smooth things along helps, which is why car marketplace, cinch, is on to a winner with cinchCharge.

Marketed as “faff-free EV charging”, cinchCharge is a payment card and app which gives cinch EV buyers access to more than 30,000 public chargepoint connectors across over 18 networks.

In one fell swoop, electric car drivers who’ve bought via cinch can pay for charging using the cinchCharge card or app without having to shuffle cards and flick through different apps.

We’ve been testing out cinchCharge for ourselves over the last couple of months and we’re impressed.

The cinchCharge app helps you find and filter accessible public chargers by availability, speed and distance from your location.

What’s more, the cinchCharge app is free to download, there’s no monthly subscription and no fees.

When you stop at the charger, simply tap the cinchCharge card or use the app to start charging. Then you end your charging session and payment is taken from your linked debit or credit card, so you only pay for what you use.

The cinchCharge card worked perfectly on every public charger we used, including Gridserve, Motor Fuel Group, Osprey and Ionity.

Typically, there were also a couple of occasions where we were miffed because we weren’t able to use fast chargers on the Instavolt and BP Pulse networks, because they are not cinchCharge providers, but on the whole, the coverage is impressive.

The app is fine, though perhaps not the slickest out there, but it is integrated with Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps, meaning you can easily get directions to chargers, once you have located them.

What’s more, the interactive map within cinchCharge shows you whether the chargepoint is available, compatible, the speed it will charge your car, as well as highlighting the price.

Our only suggestion is that would be a great bonus if the kWh prices were discounted a little for cinch owners.

So, overall cinchCharge works and certainly alleviates one of the key “faffs” of owning an electric vehicle (ie registering with various suppliers and needing multiple cards).

It’s just a shame that all EV drivers can’t benefit from cinchCharge and you have to buy a car via cinch in order to be able to access it!

Revealed: UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Gareth Herincx

16 hours ago
Auto News

Zap-Map reveals UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Zap-Map, the UK’s leading electric vehicle mapping service, has released its annual public charging network satisfaction rankings.

The league table, now in its fourth year, comes from Zap-Map’s annual EV charging survey, which had more than 3,000 respondents and is the most established and comprehensive survey of EV drivers in the UK.

As part of the survey, respondents rated their overall satisfaction for the networks they use regularly, which is then used to rank each network out of a maximum of five stars. They also rated their level of satisfaction with the networks in four key areas: reliability, ease of use, cost and facilities

In first place overall this year is InstaVolt. The rapid charging network scored particularly highly for reliability and ease of use, securing its ‘Best EV Charging Network’ badge.

Taking the ‘EV Driver Recommended’ second and third places respectively are two other rapid charging networks, MFG EV Power and Osprey.

Zap-Map user ratings for public EV charging networks in the UK

EV network	Overall rating
InstaVolt	4.4
MFG EV Power	4.2
Osprey	4.0
Pod Point	3.8
GRIDSERVE Electric Highway	3.6
Shell Recharge	3.6
NewMotion	3.5
IONITY	3.5
Ubitricity	3.4
Swarco E.connect	3.3
GeniePoint (includes ENGIE)	3.1
ESB Energy	3.0
ChargePlace Scotland	2.9
Source London	2.7
EV Charge Online	2.6
bp pulse	2.5

“Despite significant changes over the course of the year, there are some things that remain the same,” said Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder and COO at Zap-Map.

“EV drivers are clear about the factors that make for a good charging experience, namely reliability and ease of use – and these should be key priorities for the UK’s public charging networks.

“The Zap-Map survey shows that while this is being delivered by some, others are falling short and there needs to be improvement. As we move from the early adopters towards mass EV adoption, making public charging simple becomes more important than ever.”

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