The UK’s best EV charging networks revealed

Tesla’s Supercharger network has been named the UK’s best electric vehicle charging provider in a leading car ownership survey.

Autovia’s Driver Power study pooled responses from around 60,000 motorists who answered questions on various aspects of car ownership, including thoughts from EV owners.

Chargers from the country’s biggest operators were then ranked based on their scores in 10 categories, such as price, charging speed and reliability.

(Tesla)

In all but one of these categories, Tesla came out on top, giving it an overall rating of 83 per cent and securing its place at the top of the table.

However, one of the biggest problems with Tesla’s network is that it’s only open to owners of the American firm’s vehicles. With this in mind, Shell Recharge is the best provider that is open to owners of any vehicle, scoring 79 per cent.

EV owners said no other company offered a better range of locations to charge, while it took the top three position in six other categories.

The top five was made up of Instavolt (77 per cent), Geniepoint (75 per cent), and Pod Point (74 per cent).

However, for the second year running, Ecotricity is rooted to the bottom of the table with a score of just 66 per cent. However, it has recently been purchased by Gridserve, so owners who regularly have to use these chargers at motorway service stations will be hoping to see an improvement.

Chris Rosamond, consumer and features editor at Auto Express said: “Tesla’s Supercharger network continues to impress, not least because so many Tesla owners can still use the service for free.

“Shell Recharge’s investment is paying off, and with the firm planning to increase its number of sites from around 170 today to more than 5,000 by 2025, it’s a provider to watch.

“Some of the biggest and more well-known charging networks will be disappointed to see that their operations need work.”