InstaVolt tops Zap-Map’s EV charging network rankings

InstaVolt has been ranked as the UK’s best electric vehicle chargepoint operator, according to Zap-Map’s annual public charging network rankings.

The league table, now in its fourth year, comes from Zap-Map’s annual EV charging survey, which had over 3,000 respondents that rate their overall satisfaction for the networks they use regularly.

As part of the survey, respondents also rated their level of satisfaction with the networks in four key areas: reliability, ease of use, cost and facilities. Each criteria is rated out of five stars and is then ranked.

In first place overall this year is InstaVolt – the rapid charging network scored particularly highly for reliability and ease of use, securing its ‘Best EV Charging Network’ badge. Taking the ‘EV Driver Recommended’ second and third places respectively are two other rapid charging networks, MFG EV Power and Osprey.

MFG EV Power is a new network that has installed charging hubs at its network of petrol stations, and has entered the list for the first time in second position.

GRIDSERVE Electric Highway is another new network, which has both rolled out its electric forecourt in Braintree and also bought, and is in the process of upgrading, Ecotricity’s network of chargers. GRIDSERVE Electric Highway came joint fifth overall and a noteworthy 1st place for facilities.

ubitricity, the on-street charging network, and EV.Charge Online, with its network of destination chargers, while not new networks, made the league table for the first time in position ninth and thirteenth respectively. ChargePlace Scotland – which came in thirteenth place overall – took first place for cost.

At the bottom of the table, the legacy Ecotricity Electric Highway points that have not yet been migrated to GRIDSERVE’s new chargers are in last place overall for the second year in a row. Furthermore, bp pulse has this year slipped into the bottom three, where it is also joined by bp pulse owned network Charge Your Car.

Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder & COO at Zap-Map, said: “Despite significant changes over the course of the year, there are some things that remain the same. EV drivers are clear about the factors that make for a good charging experience, namely reliability and ease of use – and these should be key priorities for the UK’s public charging networks.

“The Zap-Map survey shows that while this is being delivered by some, others are falling short and there needs to be improvement. As we move from the early adopters towards mass EV adoption, making public charging simple becomes more important than ever.”