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Enhancements to the Island’s network of chargers is helping to make owning an electric vehicle more convenient, says Daniel Hawkes, eMobility business developer at JE
READERS with a good memory may recall that I finished last month’s column with something of a teaser.
It wasn’t perhaps of the same scale as the cliffhangers which leave viewers of multi-part dramas on tenterhooks, but it was of significance to Island motorists, particularly those who either already own an electric vehicle or who are considering making the switch this year.
If you are in either of these groups, then you are part of an ever-growing community across the world, with sales of both new and used EVs rising year after year. Indeed, recent research from The Green Insurer indicates that 18% of motorists in the UK are thinking about switching their petrol or diesel car to an electric or hybrid model in the next 12 months.
While some of this appetite is fuelled by environmental concerns, or a desire to save money on maintenance and running costs, it is also driven by an ever-growing range of EVs. And, as the makes and models become ever more diverse, so the prices at which they are available vary, making EV ownership more accessible than it has ever been before.
As more new cars come onto the market, and many keen motorists trade in their previous models, so the second-hand market grows. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, more than 34,000 pure-battery electric cars changed hands in the UK between July and September 2023, almost double the figure of the same period the year before.
With more and more EVs therefore appearing on the roads, it is more important than ever that the team at Jersey Electricity supports its mission of supporting a zero-carbon future and ensures that Islanders who want to switch their wheels can do so confident that the infrastructure is here to support that choice.
Having recently completed a comprehensive overhaul of the 109 chargers on the Evolve public network, Jersey Electricity is not sitting back and relaxing. Instead, further innovations are taking place, one of which is the newly installed neighbourhood charger at The Parade.
This is the Island’s first neighbourhood charger and the location has been chosen because it is a densely populated area, where a lot of residents do not have access to off-street parking.
While, in the past, this may have been a barrier to EV ownership, the new facility, which can charge two vehicles at a time, is designed to overcome that challenge.
This is an exciting development, and we will monitor the usage of this charger to understand demand. If the demand is high, there is potential for additional chargers to be installed both at The Parade and in other areas with similar residential and parking arrangements.
And this is not the only enhancement to the network planned for this year. As the JE team looks at further ways of expanding the network, motorists can expect to see new or upgraded chargers appearing in further locations across the Island. Among the changes on the way are a new Rapid charger to replace the 22kw facility at Coop Sion and chargers at Ann Court.
All of these developments are designed to strengthen confidence in the infrastructure, so that householders and business owners can charge their vehicles easily and conveniently. Encouragingly, we are seeing a growing number of commercial vehicles plugged in at our stations, as taxi drivers and small-business owners, who don’t have a depot or base with a charging facility, take advantage of the Evolve network to recharge their vehicles while taking a quick break from driving duties.
And while there is still plenty of capacity on the network – and the infrastructure in place to install further chargers as and when demand dictates – it is great to see the chargers being used more and more, something which the new easy-to-use app-based system has supported.
With this in mind, I would encourage anyone thinking about buying a new car this year to take an EV (or two) out for a test drive and, during that test period, to try out the Evolve network. Familiarise yourself with the system, check out the average length of some of your journeys so that you know how often you will need to charge the car’s battery and join the Evolve EV Community Facebook page, where you can get tips and hear directly from EV owners in the Island, as well as learning about the latest developments on the Evolve network.
