Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) England wants to hear the views of electric vehicle (EV) drivers about their experiences of using public charge points.

The consumer association says it will use survey responses to feed back to a Government consultation on the consumer experience at public charge points.

It was launched by Department for Transport (DfT) recently and outlines a series of measures it believes could transform the charge point experience for EV drivers.

Key is interoperability, with the Government suggesting customers should be able to make a contactless payment, without having to download an app.

The consultation - The consumer experience at public electric vehicle charge points - also reveals how the Government wants to improve charge point reliability by forcing operators to respond to faults quickly and provide a 24/7 helpline for drivers.

EVA England welcomes the Government’s call for responses and sees it as a continued commitment to achieving the best possible EV charging infrastructure in advance of the 2030 phase out date for new petrol and diesel cars and vans.

EVA England also wants to ensure that the voice of current EV drivers is heard and is encouraging drivers to respond to its survey. 

The association sees this consultation as critical to improving user confidence in the public charging network.

Responses will be anonymised, analysed and used to feed into EVA England’s response to the Government’s consultation. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes.

Gill Nowell, director of EVA England, said: “A mass market for electric cars and vans is just around the corner and if we don’t address a host of basic issues for drivers now, we won’t get consumer buy-in for this historic transition.

“We strongly support this consultation and are running this survey to provide evidence for the Government on where it needs to intervene and how.

“We encourage all current EV drivers to take our survey, including those with battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. This is an important opportunity for EV drivers to have their voice heard on topics close to their heart, namely ‘can I find a charger, can I easily pay, and does it work’?”

EVA England’s online survey will run until March 15.

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