7:39 am, July 23, 2021
Tesla’s Supercharger network has been voted the best EV public charging provider in a survey of electric car owners.
The network, which is currently only available to Tesla owners, received an overall score of 89.8 per cent by respondents questioned as part of the study conducted by What Car?.
Users rated it highly for its reliability, charging speed, ease of payment and value for money.
The news comes just a day after Car Dealer reported that Tesla boss Elon Musk has confirmed the network will soon be opened up to other manufacturers.
Currently, owners of other brands of EV cannot access the Supercharger points, often leading to huge queues while the Tesla chargers remain unsed.
There are currently more than 2,500 Supercharger stations in Europe and the Middle East, with dozens in the UK and many more under construction.
Of the other service providers, Instavolt came out on top.
It achieved an overall score of 81.2 per cent – with users praising its ease-of-use and speed – while it was also the top-scoring network for reliability with a score of 92.6 per cent.
What Car spoke to 1,000 electric and plug-in hybrid owners, asking them to rate networks based on reliability, how easy they were to reach and park in and if they offered fast charging speeds.
In addition, What Car staff then visited at least one charging point from the 12 providers to see for themselves how good they were.
Steve Huntingford, editor, WhatCar?, said: ‘Our investigation highlights the significant differences between electric car public charging networks.
‘Those that offer the fastest charging speeds are not necessarily the best to use, and some of the most affordable can also be the most inaccessible.
‘As more people switch to EVs the demand for public chargers will increase, and EV owners really do need to shop around to find the best charging solutions.’
At the opposite end of the scale, Gridserve’s Electric Highway was rated the worst for reliability with just 23.7 per cent.
It did however, achieve the highest rating for location, scoring 74.9 per cent.
Having been previously operated by Ecotricity, the network, according to What Car, has become ‘rundown’.
Networks which allow drivers to tap and pay with a contactless payment card without the need to register were seen as the easiest to use, contrasting those with a lengthy sign-on process.
Worst-rated overall was Charge Place Scotland, which has a long registration process and can only be accessed with a charging card – something that took 10 days to send out.
