The South East of England has topped electric vehicle (EV) home charger installation charts between July 2020 and June 2022, according to Smart Home Charge data.
Peterborough-based Smart Home Charge is a nationwide installer of home charge points for electric cars, which sells and installs a range of chargers to “suit every need and budget”. Its mission is to help UK drivers enjoy the benefits of driving an electric car and experience the convenience of charging it at home.
Even though enquiries and installations for home EV charging points have skyrocketed in recent years, it is the South East that has risen to the top of the home charging league tables. Smart Home Charge installed over 1,400 charge points in the South East, confirming it as the most popular region between July 2020 and June 2022.
“It’s no surprise to see EV home charger enquiries and installations increasing as the electric car ball is well and truly rolling and home charging is the most convenient method of refuelling an EV,” said Danny Morgan, editor at Smart Home Charge.
The South East edged the Midlands, the runner-up, by 2.8% according to the data. However, the Midlands is rapidly catching up with the most installations in 2022 so far with 446 home charge points installed versus 431 for the South East.
The Midlands also saw the most enquiries for home chargers of any UK regions – more than 5,200 since July 2020. A deciding factor and uplift for this could be Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone, which was introduced on June 1, 2021 as the city’s answer to ever-growing pollution levels. Aimed at improving air quality as soon as possible, in particular by discouraging the most polluting vehicles from entering the zone.
Morgan added that it’s encouraging to see demand not being restricted to just London and the South East, with the Midlands, the North of England, and Scotland seeing healthy home charge point installation numbers. “East Anglia and Wales are lagging behind in terms of enquiries and installations, which may be due to their more rural road network, so more work is needed to help convince drivers of the viability of electric cars here.”
Smart Home Charge also notes that home and workplace charge points total over 400,000, dwarfing the 32,663 public charging devices installed in the UK, as of June 2022.
The data also showed Wallbox Pulsar Plus emerging as the most popular home charge point. Despite this, it’s set to be overtaken by Norwegian newcomer the Easee One, which is leading the installation charts so far in 2022.
“Many people who can’t have a home charger installed aren’t switching to EVs because public chargers don’t give the same dependability, convenience, and cost benefits needed for them to take the leap to electric” Joel Teague, CEO of home charger sharing platform Co Charger said.
“Fortunately, the 400,000 or so private charge points are rarely used for more than five per cent of the time. By enabling the sharing of these under-utilised assets as community chargers, Co Charger is delivering exactly the kind of ‘base’ charging option needed to get everyone out of fossil fuel cars.”