EV owners find home charging better than visiting service station – poll

Electric vehicle owners find home charging reliable, dependable, cheap and more convenient than having to fill-up at a petrol station.

That’s the finding of a poll by Flip the Fleet, a community membership organisation which shares data on EV performance in New Zealand conditions and encourages EV uptake.

Members were invited to compare filling up at a petrol station with charging their EV at home on a one to five ranking, with one being much more convenient and five being much less convenient.

The August 10 poll was sent to 277 EV owners with 203 responding.

Most (92%) of respondents find home charging either “much more convenient” or at least “more convenient” than having to go to a petrol station to fill up.

Around 5.4% think they are about equally convenient, and 2.5% say home charging is less convenient or much less convenient than going to a petrol station.

“This is by far the most one-sided poll taken by Flip the Fleet so far,” the organisation says after its 10th survey.

Respondents emphasised that home charging is more convenient than filling up with petrol because it’s fast, reliable, clean and easily integrated into their daily use of their EVs.

Home charging becomes habitual, hassle free and no more complicated than charging your smartphone each night, Flip the Fleet says.

“Many EV owners have developed an aversion to petrol stations because they force a detour, can involve queuing to fill or pay, and the experience can be uncomfortable in bad weather compared to simply driving into the home garage and plugging in.”

Reactions to the relative convenience of the two modes of powering their cars depended on a trade-off between more frequent but quicker home charging events compared to less frequent but much more time consuming and disruptive fill-ups at a petrol station.

Those living in rural areas or a long way from a petrol station find home charging particularly convenient. Home charging helps many EV owners minimise energy costs, particularly by putting the vehicle charging onto a timer between 11pm and 7am to use off-peak power rates.

The ability to charge at home dovetails well with home electricity generation management, Flip the Fleet says.

On the down side, a few EV owners consider they need to plan more ahead when home charging, or are worried their car might not be fully-charged if there’s an unexpected emergency. Others miss earning air points on their credit card when buying petrol, and some look forward to electricity companies and AA creating their own loyalty rewards for EV owners.

“Some of our members did not separate the issue of convenience of refuelling from the bigger picture issues of sustainability, environmental impacts of petrol and conventional vehicles, or the overall financial benefits of EVs.

A comment summary included: “It’s just as easy as charging my phone each day”, “On my way from parking the car to entering my house, it takes me barely 15 seconds to plug the car in… and another 15 seconds to unplug it when I next use the car”, “No reaching for a payment card. No reconciling fuel purchases in the household accounts. Done at home when there is no rush”, “No longer do I have to make time to go and fill up, stand in the cold while the tank fills and then on a queue to pay, I drive into the garage, plug on and that’s it, and it’s cheaper!”