With electric vehicles increasing in popularity to a degree that is still a matter of debate, electrical installers who have built up their skills installing EV charging stations will be encouraged by a recent study that shows just how much they are needed.
According to an annual charging insights report by Zapmap, which surveyed UK drivers of a battery electric vehicle (EV), nearly four-fifths of drivers (79 per cent) have a dedicated home charge and just over half (51 per cent) use public chargers at least once a month.
The latter figure is particularly interesting because it has shot up by six per cent in just a year, and has doubled in three years, showing the greater trust and reliance on the public network.
There are a lot of conclusions electricians can draw from this, all of which are pretty positive.
The first is that more people trust public chargers than ever before, something that is the result of greater availability, faster-charging stations and greater reliability than was available even a few years ago.
This is a credit to manufacturers, installers and maintenance teams who have been able to keep them running, which is not only beneficial in its own right to help keep businesses and drivers moving, but also has a psychological effect on drivers which spreads to potential drivers in the future.
A driver who has an EV is acutely mindful of its range, given that it currently takes longer to charge an EV than to refuel a car, but the more confident a driver is that they can charge somewhere away from home, the more often they will use their car for longer journeys.
As well as this, there are significantly more charging stations in 2024 than there were in 2023, with over a 38 per cent increase in infrastructure and a significant increase in satisfaction score for the EV driving experience.
EV drivers are 87 per cent satisfied on average with their cars and less than three per cent have considered switching back.
This highlights the effects of the EV critical mass on EV charging stations and the jobs of electricians tasked with installing them.
Once a driver has an electric car, they are likely to keep hold of it and are not going to go back to a conventional petrol car.
It also highlights how critical infrastructure is to EV adoption, and thus the role of electricians in making the green transport revolution happen as well as how well they are stepping up to face the challenges that will come in the sector in the future.
There are more charging stations, people are happier with them and this in turn increases confidence in the entire sector.
Once the word spreads on how easy it is to live with an EV alongside falling costs, that will tempt drivers to take the plunge and experience it for themselves.
All of this simply could not happen without a growing number of electricians specialising in charging station installation ready to keep the United Kingdom moving.