Where are the Best Locations for Charge Points?

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? This is a question often posed to young children to get them thinking about the sequencing of events and the concept of life in general. A similar question currently doing the rounds in the automotive and transport world is do we need recharge infrastructure before individuals will consider a Plug-In Vehicle from their next car choice? Certainly this dilemma has already come up in the past such as do we need roads before people will buy cars? Clearly this situation is not as black and white as it seems at first glance, we had roads, of a sort, before cars were invented. These roads simply had to be improved and expanded in order to meet the growing mobility requirements of an affluent car owning society. Similarly, we already have a well developed refuelling infrastructure for conventional cars, surely we could just modify these refuel stations to allow for Plug-In vehicles to be recharged there? This is definitely an avenue that is being investigated however one of the selling points of Plug-In vehicles is the opportunity to get away from the undesirable (in some individual’s views) refuelling stations so other possibilities must be considered.

The Technology Strategy Board has allocated a significant amount of funding to its Plugged-In-Places scheme. This scheme aims to roll out electric vehicle charging points in urban areas to facilitate the transition to Plug-In vehicles. Thousands of points have already been installed and many more are earmarked for fitting. This scheme is both important from a financial and also policy angle. With the fragile recovery still not fully embedded in the UK economy, the Government cannot afford to be seen wasting tax payer’s money. The Government has also committed itself to pursuing a low carbon pathway in future economic growth and is keen to realign the economy with green business opportunities. The success of this scheme will be critical to the destiny of Plug-In vehicles in the UK and could herald the expansion from niche market application to mainstream consumer product.

The Unusual Suspects

When a new product enters the market it is likely to follow the well establish diffusion curve whereby initial demand is low but increases quickly till the market reaches maturity and eventually decline. The role that early adopters have in the fortunes of any new product introduction cannot be underestimated. These trend setters and opinion leaders are the ones to get the first practical experience with a product and the results of these experiences will be related to friends, family, colleagues and the wider public by both word of mouth and other forms of mass media. With the development of the internet early adopters can now spread their reviews across the entire world with blogs and video reviews becoming ever more common.

With these points in mind, making sure early adopters are well looked after is a key role for any firm introducing a new product. Actively trying to identify early adopters will be a critical component of pre introduction market research. This situation is no different in the case of LEVs and automotive manufactures should already be sourcing information on this important market segment. One of the crucial questions that should form the basis of this market research is what do we expect these early adopters to “look like”? In the following article we set out our views on the socioeconomic characteristics and demographics of potential early adopters in this market.