The use of public EV charging facilities by UK businesses has soared in a year, according to data from Allstar.
The fuel payment company has published its second AllCosts report, based on data from its customers’ charging sessions between January and March this year.
It revealed public EV charger use was up by 264% compared with March 2023.
In addition, the number of business drivers using home charging rose by 113%.
Allstar notes that the average cost of the public charging carried out during the period was 82p per kWh, which it said suggested drivers were mainly opting for more expensive, higher-speed charging in order to get back on the road more quickly. The average cost of home charging was 28p per kWh.
Allstar Chargepass UK MD Ashley Tate said: “The AllCosts report paints an interesting picture of the needs and wants of business drivers across the UK. Despite some having the perception that there are not enough chargers around the region, or a lack of accessibility, public charger use is up more than twice as much as the same time 12 months ago.
“We know that EV adoption has slowed in some areas, but businesses continue to turn to electric vehicles for their fleet operations.
“It is also important to look at the type of charging that the report represents, with recharging being significantly cheaper to do at home. But for those that are out and about and need to plug in, it seems that drivers and their businesses are happy to pay more if charging speeds are faster and downtime is minimised.”
