Retail customer car park ranks most popular location to charge electric car

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Retail customer car park ranks most popular location to charge electric car.

Statistics released by nationwide electric vehicle charging specialist POD Point have revealed that IKEA Wembley was the most popular place for charging an Electric Car in the whole of the Source London Network during August.

Drivers took advantage of over 157 hours of charging time across 32 POD Points in Source London network during August, but it was IKEA in Wembley, which topped the usage charts, with over 18 hours of charging.

Source London is part of the government backed 'Plugged in Places' initiative provides regions with funding to introduce electric vehicle charge points into public places. Source London currently has 32 POD Points live POD Points across the city including public car parks, airports, leisure centres, retail car parks and hospitals.

Surprisingly, only 4% of Source London's charge points are located in retail car parks like IKEA, but with the introduction of a faster charge point by POD Point at last week's Low Carbon Vehicle show, the company's CEO Erik Fairbairn believes that retailers could extend the time their customers stay in store by offering electric vehicle charging facilities.

POD Point CEO Erik Fairbairn comments, "We are seeing increasing numbers of retailers explore the benefits of installing EV charge points in their car parks because it encourages customers to spend longer in store, which in turn will help increase their spend. Many will be aware of the debate raised by Top Gear recently with regards to the length of time it takes to charge an electric vehicle. Whilst our new twin charge points are able to provide a full charge in 3 hours, what we have found is that most drivers simply 'graze' when it comes to public charging, topping up with some charge whilst they shop. Our new charge points can provide 30 miles of additional driving in just an hour, making it the perfect solution for retailers who want to entice customers to stay in store for longer."