victorian electric vehicle trial mid-term report - Department of Transport

Household participants were askedabout various issues they felt shouldbe taken into consideration in relationto public charging. With referenceto Table 16, the highest priorityissues according to trial householdparticipants were:• Accessibility – ensuring chargingoutlets would be accessible whenrequired, with enforcement ofEV-only parking the highestranked response and provisionof a reservation facility alsohighly ranked• Availability – consistent withthe views of other stakeholders,provision of public charginginfrastructure was highlyranked – at high profile locationsin order to promote EV usage,and at a density similar to petrolstations/bowsers.The importance of accessibility maybe interpreted as an insight into therole of public charging infrastructureas an ‘insurance policy’ for electricvehicle range limitations. Withreference to Section 5.2.5, nearly80 per cent of participants felt thathome charging met their needs.This suggests that most EV driverswill only use public charging outletsinfrequently, but they want to be ableto reliably access it when they do needit. This interpretation is consistentwith the perception of the role ofpublic charging infrastructure as a keyenabler for promoting adoption of EVs.Household participants were alsoasked about the influence of cost andconvenience on the likely appeal ofpublic charging infrastructure.Results suggest that convenienceoutweighs cost in terms of its effecton driver appeal, with the number ofparticipants who would not use publiccharging outlets regardless of priceincreasing from 5 to around 50 per centif they had to go out of their way to findthem – refer to Figure 45. This findingis potentially inconsistent with the viewof public charging infrastructure as an‘insurance policy’.While nearly 87 per cent of drivers saythey’d be willing to pay for the serviceif the charging outlet was located attheir intended parking destination,it should be recalled that a highproportion of drivers also said thathome charging met their needs (referto above/Section 5.2.5). These resultshighlight the potentially high-riskmarket opportunity for public charginginfrastructure hosts and operators.Yes, even if itwere double thecost of homechargingYes, but only if itcost the same ashome chargingYes, but only ifthey were freeDo you think you would use electricvehicle charging points if they wereavailable at places that you parkother than your home?Do you think you would use standardelectric vehicle charging points otherthan your home if they were availablebut you had to go out of your wayto find them?No0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%Figure 45. Results from a survey of trial household participants in response to two questions relating to the likely appeal of publiccharging outlets; the identical response options for both questions examined cost influences, while the difference between thetwo questions assessed convenience; survey interval was around six weeks into their EV experience (n = 76; multiple choice/singlechoice only).CREATING A MARKET 87