A recent study by Drax Electric Vehicles has discovered that just 6% of UK city hotels provide access to EV chargers for their customers.
The woeful shortfall of chargers at hotels, as the Government desperately tries to encourage retail customers to turn to electric vehicles, is the latest blow to the move to e-mobility.
“We are seeing a record number of electric vehicles on our roads. While uptake is often higher in major metropolitan cities like London… our research shows a need for further development in charging infrastructure across many hotels,” said Adam Hall, Director at Drax Electric Vehicles. “Investing in EV charging will quickly give these businesses a competitive advantage, attracting potential new customers and better serving their existing ones when they eventually make the switch.”
The best city in the UK for EV chargers was St Davids in Wales with 22% of its hotels offering charging, with Milton Keynes in second (16%) and Central London in third (15%). Other larger cities such as Manchester (6%), Birmingham (4%) and Liverpool (3%) sat at the bottom of the table.
While grants are available for businesses through the workplace charging scheme, those low figures are also problematic for any EV drivers holidaying this summer in the UK and needing to charge. Here at EVs Unplugged, even during the past few weeks we’ve discovered problems in both Wales and parts of Devon where EV drivers openly share information at local chargers on just where to find rapid chargers in large empty pockets of the country – something that could be solved even with slow destination trickle charging.
While we’ve tackled this problem before where hospitality businesses of all kinds can actually profit from fitting EV chargers, many seem reluctant to do so perhaps either out of ignorance or reluctance to invest. Ironically of course, this is a request they will only receive more in time.
The reality is however, either by providing charging points at hotels, holiday lets or Air BnBs, an owner could use it as a profit stream either as a fixed fee for use throughout the holiday or on a pay-as-you-go basis. If the amount asked is above what the owner is paying for electricity but below what public charging would cost, then all parties would be happy. Plus, very few holidaymakers do a lot of miles when based in one place, so a flat fee for the week would potentially be profitable for them.
For hotels, we at EVs Unplugged think EV charging could end up being like wi-fi provision. Not so long ago, few hotels offered wi-fi, then it was a paid-for extra and now it’s free. Over time, the market, and customers, simply demanded that hotels provide it.
While EV charging won’t ever be free and the set up costs are costlier than for wi-fi, it’s easy to see much the same happening both for hotels and all holiday lets. Before long, many will see a competitive advantage to offer charging in one form or another and then others will simply be forced to follow suit to retain customers.
For us, that day can’t come soon enough.