InstaVolt tops Zap-Map’s EV charging league table
A new survey by EV mapping service Zap-Map has identified the most and least popular electric vehicle charging networks as rated by EV drivers.
Now in its fourth year, the league table comes from Zap-Map’s annual EV charging survey, which had over 3,000 respondents. This year Zap-Map is awarding a new ‘Best EV Charging Network’ accreditation to the top scorer, and ‘EV Driver Recommended’ badge given to the top three.
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. The table below shows the full list of Zap-Map users’ most popular public EV charging networks in the UK.
Zap-Map user ratings for public EV charging networks in the UK
This year there are four new entrants to the league table. MFG EV Power is a new network that has installed charging hubs at its network of petrol stations and has entered the list for the first time in a strong 2nd position.
GRIDSERVE Electric Highway is another new network, which has both rolled out its pioneering electric forecourt in Braintree and also bought, and is in the process of upgrading, Ecotricity’s network of chargers. GRIDSERVE Electric Highway came joint 5th overall and a noteworthy 1st place for facilities.
It is also worth highlighting that ChargePlace Scotland – which came in 13th place overall – took 1st place for cost, thanks to many of its extensive network of rapid charge points being free to use. ChargePlace Scotland is also going through a transition period, with a focus on improving the consumer experience.
At the bottom of the table, the legacy Ecotricity Electric Highway points that have not yet been migrated to GRIDSERVE’s new chargers are in last place overall for the second year in a row. Furthermore, bp pulse has this year slipped into the bottom three, where it is also joined by bp pulse owned network Charge Your Car. It is worth noting that not all issues experienced by EV drivers can be attributed directly to the network, as they do not always own the chargers and set the tariffs.
Says Melanie Shufflebotham, Co-founder & COO at Zap-Map:
“Despite significant changes over the course of the year, there are some things that remain the same. 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 an improvement. As we move from the early adopters towards mass EV adoption, making public charging simple becomes more important than ever.”
