Innovate UK’s ‘Electric Vehicle Network Extender (NetX) Field Trial’ is assessing NetX, a three-socket charger that can extend an existing single charge point. The increase in  capacity allows three times as many EVs to be charged at a site.
As part of the project, drivers were asked about how easy it is to charge their car an d the preliminary results from this charging survey have been released.:
• 82% of respondents charge most often at home, and 8% at work
• 85% of people want to pay for public charging by contactless debit or credit card payment or automatic payment on plug in; only 10% want to pay by smartphone app; and less than 5% want to pay by RFID card or tag.
• Only 22.75% of respondents said that public rapid chargers always worked.
• Asked about accessibility of (non-rapid) workplace chargers, over 42% of respondents said that they occasionally or often had to queue or to give up, or could rarely find an available charger.
• In reply to the question ‘Why did you buy an electric vehicle?’, ‘reducing environmental impact’ was the top response, closely followed by ‘low running costs’.
The survey of 996 EV and non-EV drivers
This project aims to provide a cost-effective way of boosting charging capacity. This, for instance,  could allow employees who don’t have the ability to charge at home to be able to access more charge points at work.
NetX project partners are DriveElectric (survey and data collection), EB Charging (installation and charger management, and project lead partner), Hangar19 (charger design, production and charging back office management) and the Smart Mobility Unit at the University of Hertfordshire (research partner).
Other project partners include Brighton & Hove City Council, Southend on Sea Borough Council, Watford Borough Council and Hodos Media.