Fleets warned public EV charge points at their busiest today

The peak electric vehicle (EV) charging day of the bank holiday weekend is expected to be today (Friday, August 23), according to Allstar.

It will account for more than a third (38%), according to year-on-year charging analysis of all the August bank holiday weekend’s charging.

Demand for EV charging on the Friday ahead of the long weekend has surged by 183% in the past three years alone.

It follows the general growth of public charging usage which has increased 264% by Allstar’s business customers year-on-year, as revealed in the latest Allstar AllCosts report. 

Ashley Tate, MD UK, Allstar Chargepass, said: “Business drivers should take care when setting out this bank holiday weekend.

“They can easily become stuck in traffic due to the increased volumes of vehicles on the roads, while hot weather can impact EV battery efficiency and cooling systems for the vehicle and air conditioning can drain power more rapidly.

“They should also check ahead for diversions and interruptions to their journeys that might unexpectedly extend travelling time such as roadworks.”

The RAC is estimating that 19.2 million leisure trips by car will be made over the August bank holiday weekend – the highest number on record since 2015.

It is warning fleets that Saturday (August 24) is set to be the busiest on the roads with 3.7 million getaway trips planned, with 3.2 million on Friday (August 23), 3.1 million on Sunday (August 25) and 3 million on bank holiday Monday (August 26).

Furthermore, it says that 6.2 million trips are planned at some point over the long weekend, with drivers undecided exactly when they will travel.

The 19.2m figure is the highest number of ‘getaway’ trips predicted for the August Bank Holiday since the RAC began recording data for this weekend nine years ago.