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A number of hurdles being faced by electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint operators are resulting in a “struggling” commercial model for rapid chargers, a network director has told Utility Week.
Ian Cameron, director of customer service and innovation at UK Power Networks (UKPN), was speaking following the publication of a government report which highlighted the number of publicly available EV charging devices in the UK.
It charts the number of chargers available in each quarter of 2022 by speed, breaking them down as slow (3-6kW), fast (7-22kW), rapid (25-100kW) and ultra-rapid (100kW+).
Despite seeing an almost 80% increase in the number of devices across the year, ultra-rapid chargers are still the smallest overall category with 2,295 devices.
Asked why he thinks there is such a gap between fast and rapid/ultra-rapid chargers installed, Cameron pointed to a number of barriers being faced by chargepoint operators such as planning permission and securing a network connection.
“So I think that’s what’s driven it in the main, the commercial case and what they call a tactical utilisation is quite low for them to take that financial risk upfront,” he said.
He further highlighted other macroeconomic factors such as the fact sales of new vehicles are down as a proportion.
He added: “So the market is shrinking, even though the percentage of EVs are growing compared to internal combustion engines, the overall market is reducing.
“Cost of living is going up, the cost of energy is going up. Charging an EV versus a diesel car is not hugely different these days. So all of that leads into what they call a utilsation factor. If that’s not high enough, they won’t invest.
“That’s what I think in the last six to eight months has driven rapid chargers and above to slow down as a proportion of the charging offerings.
“It’s that specific rapid and above where it’s a commercial business and the commercial model is struggling, which means there’s less of it… in the main it’s a market mechanism failure that is driving slower uptick.”
Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder and chief operating officer at chargepoint platform Zap Map, which provided the data for the government’s report, told Utility Week that one of the reasons for the high volume of sub-25kW chargers as opposed to more rapid devices is that there are different use cases for each type of charger.
She explained that more rapid chargers are primarily used for longer journeys, while slower devices are installed in volume on-streets, in car parks, supermarkets and at attractions where drivers may wish to top-up their EV. Furthermore, slower devices are much cheaper to install.
Asked for her thoughts on whether the commercial model for rapid chargers was struggling, she said: “There’s lots of investment money in these chargepoint operators. A lot of them have millions of pounds sitting there and they are waiting to deploy them.
“So I don’t know whether it’s the commercial model or more just that there are challenges first of all securing the land, getting the grid connection, before they can then deploy their units.
“I think it’s a time-to-installation problem, if someone says ‘we need thousands more’, they can’t just deploy them this month, there is a lead time to it.”
She did however stress the significance of the 80% increase of ultra-rapid chargers, as well as the fact that multiple devices are being installed in one location.
“When we looked at the data there were over 100 new rapid/ ultra-rapid charging hubs installed over the last year as well, which is another positive thing,” she added.
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