Best charging networks for electric car owners revealed: Tesla Supercharger tops new UK poll - and soon every EV owner will be able to use it

Some 1,000 electric car owners have been polled about the best and worst public charging networks
Tesla's Superchargers rated best - and will soon be available to all EV drivers
Charge Your Car placed bottom because its chargers were deemed unreliable

Published: 00:01 BST, 22 July 2021 | Updated: 08:31 BST, 23 July 2021

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Tesla's Supercharger network has topped a new survey of electric car owners about the best providers for charging their vehicle's batteries.

Of the 1,000 EV owners who use it and completed What Car?'s survey, they rated it very highly for reliability, charging speed, ease of payment and value for money, giving it an overall score of 89.8 per cent - which is the best marks achieved by any of the 12 providers reviewed.

The honour comes just over 24 hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the US firm would be making its Supercharger network - currently exclusive to owners of Tesla cars - accessible for all electric vehicle owners.

The best public charging providers named: Tesla's Supercharger network rated best overall, scoring high for reliability, charging speed, ease of payment and value for money

Tesla's fast charging network comprises of over 25,000 Superchargers globally.

The US manufacturer confirmed in March that it has over 600 in the UK, with more than 100 being installed since last summer when it celebrated its 500th addition in Britain in June 2020.

Soon, this highly-rated network will be accessible for all electric vehicle owners, rather than just those with keys to a Tesla car.

'We're making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year,' Musk said on Tuesday.

He later responded to another tweet confirming that, over time, Tesla's charging network will be available to 'other electric vehicles in all countries'.

While this might be the case for later this year, What Car? says that the best network that's currently open to all electric vehicle owners is Instavolt.

Drivers said it was their preferred public charger because it's reliable, relatively fast and extremely easy to use.

It achieved an overall score of 81.2 per cent and was the top scoring network for reliability with 92.6 per cent.

The honour comes just hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the US firm will be making its Supercharger network - currently exclusive to owners of Tesla cars - accessible for all electric vehicle owners later this year

HOW PUBLIC ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING NETWORKS COMPARE
Company	Network	Reliability	Location	Charging speed	Value for money	Ease of payment	Overall score
1	Tesla	83.7%	74.3%	95.5%	95.5%	100%	89.8%
2	Instavolt	92.6%	63.5%	79.0%	71.0%	100%	81.2%
3	Osprey	80.6%	71.3%	61.7%	69.8%	100%	76.7%
4	Shell Recharge	75.0%	53.5%	91.7%	57.5%	100%	75.5%
5	Pod Point	70.3%	69.9%	54.7%	93.0%	70%	71.6%
6	Gridserve Electric Highway	23.7%	74.9%	84.6%	67.6%	100%	70.2%
7	BP Pulse	36.9%	45.0%	87.2%	52.0%	100%	64.2%
8	Ionity	60.6%	61.4%	95.3%	19.5%	70%	61.4%
9	Engie	53.8%	54.5%	59.5%	91.9%	40%	59.9%
10	Charge Place Scotland	55.0%	63.7%	60.5%	90.9%	20%	58.0%
11	GeniePoint	58.5%	34.6%	55.0%	70.8%	70%	57.8%
12	Charge Your Car	26.6%	34.4%	49.2%	67.2%	40%	43.5%
Source: What Car? survey of 1,000 EV drivers

To find out which electric car public charging providers were the best, What Car? surveyed 1,000 electric and plug-in hybrid car drivers, asking them to rate networks for dependability, if they were easy to reach and park in, if they offered a fast charging speed and value for money and if they were easy to use and pay for.

The automotive title also visited at least one charging location for each of the 12 companies included in the results to gain a snap-shot of how good they were.

The overall ratings are based on the combination of these two data sources.

To find out which electric car public charging providers were the best, What Car? surveyed 1,000 electric and plug-in hybrid car drivers

EV owners were asked to rate networks for dependability, if they were easy to reach and park in, if they offered a fast charging speed and value for money and if they were easy to use and pay for

Gridserve's Electric Highway gained the highest score of 74.9 per cent for location, though its motorway network was rated worst for reliability, scoring just 23.7 per cent.

Shell to install 800 chargers at Waitrose stores by 2025

Around 100 Waitrose shops will have some 800 Shell Recharge charging devices by 2025, according to the fuel retailer.

Each site is planned to receive six 22kW chargers and two 50kW rapid chargers to provide charging solutions for EV customers.

The first of these installation is expected in early 2021.

Shell says the initiative is part of its 'destination charging' scheme, which targets locations where drivers might be visiting for long periods - such as to go shopping or to the gym - and provide a local network of devices.

'This is great news for EV drivers across the UK, knowing they can easily, quickly and reliably charge up at Shell charge points while shopping at Waitrose,' said Bernadette Williamson, the general manager of Shell UK Retail.

'We want to make EV charging as hassle-free as possible and support our customers wherever they want to charge.'

The deal will also see a rise in Waitrose food products stocked in Shell fuel station shops.

However, Gridserve has only recently taken responsibility for the Electric Highway from Ecotricity, which has been lambasted by EV owners for not replacing rundown devices.

Gridserve has promised to revamp every location by the end of this year, so it is expected to perform better in next year's What Car? survey.

When it comes to charging speed, Tesla took the lead and scored 95.5 per cent, followed closely by Ionity with 95.3 per cent - both providers offer charging speeds of above 200kW.

Tesla's flat charging fee of 28p per kWh helped it gain the best score for value for money, too, whereas Ionity's 69p per kWh charge earned it a rating of just 19.5 per cent, the worst in What Car?'s data.

Steve Huntingford, editor at What Car?, said the poll highlighted the 'significant differences between electric car public charging networks'.

He added: '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.'

The easiest networks to use - according to electric car drivers - were those that allowed drivers to tap and pay and didn't require them to register.

On the flipside, those with glitchy apps, lengthy sign-up processes or a requirement to use a physical charging card to activate a charge point were rated down in this area.

Worst of all was Charge Place Scotland, which has a complex registration process and took 10 days to send out a charging card, without which you can't access the network.

However, it was Charge Your Car that came last overall because its charge points were deemed unreliable and in What Car?'s experience were frequently blocked by other vehicles because they were at the roadside with no dedicated electric car bays.

It scored just 26.6 per cent for reliability and 34.4 per cent for location, and managed only 43.5 per cent overall.

Charge Your Car placed bottom because its chargers were deemed unreliable

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Best charging networks for electric car drivers revealed

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