'Education and experience' alleviate range anxiety says BP Chargemaster

By Andrew Baxter

2 December 2019

Education and experience are two of the biggest factors which can help alleviate range anxiety.

KPMG’s Mobility 2030 analysis revealed that 99.3% of UK car journeys are less than 100 miles. Additionally, range anxiety is mostly experienced by those who don’t drive or are new to driving electric cars and as a result, spending more time driving electric cars is the best way to treat that anxiety.

Insight such as this can help fleet-decision makers looking to implement an EV strategy and allay potential fears of reticent drivers, said Tom Callow (pictured), director of communication and strategy at BP Chargemaster, as he sought to dispel the myths around charging infrastructure for EVs, supply constraints and range anxiety.

He highlighted the plethora of vehicles coming to market and advice around how to formulate an EV strategy.

Year-to-date, 54,151 plug-in cars have been registered in the UK, up 9% on 2018 (49,502), with total registrations for the financial year forecast to be around 63,000 vehicles, which would see a year-on-year growth of 5% (59,855 in 2018).

The statistics are even more impressive for pure EVs.

Year-to-date registrations are up 126% at 28,259 vehicles (12,527 in 2018).

This growth of course requires a robust infrastructure, which again now provides some impressive statistics. Year-to-date UK cumulative public charging points stand at around 3,700 ‘slow’ chargers, 17,000 fast chargers, and 5,900 rapid chargers.

Unlike ICE vehicle refuelling, electric vehicle charging happens in different places – home, destination and work. This combined with the vehicles charging at different speeds makes the development of infrastructure more viable, as the demand on the network is diffused.

Expanding the charging network is not a cheap undertaking. It costs around £4,000 to fit one 7kW charge point. The cost to fit two 150kW chargers can up to £400,000 “and some of the power connection costs for these sites have been knocking on the door of one million pounds,” said Callow.

> Tom Callow was speaking at the November meeting of the Fleet200 Executive Club.

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