Driver shares frustration after testing out 4 public electric vehicle chargers: ‘Not good for reliability’

An electric vehicle expert on TikTok decried the state of four publicly accessible electric vehicle chargers in the United Kingdom.

Tom (@thefastcharge) showed a couple of years ago how the chargers had been covered in graffiti, wiring was coming loose, signage to help customers was peeling off or no longer visible, and two of the electronic displays were not working at all.

“Not good for reliability,” he wrote in the caption.

“It’s not a good example of how we want the EV charging landscape to be in 2022 and looking to the future,” Tom said in the video. 

@thefastcharge Damaged EV chargers which are covered in graffiti. Not good for reliability. #EV #electriccar #electricvehicle #evcharging #evtok #uk #carsoftiktok #fyp #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Tom ⚡️ EV Tok

While the sight was discouraging, Tom still found the silver lining.

“These are older devices, which are definitely not being cared for as well as they should be, and the new ones that are going in are a lot better. And companies are doing loads to improve, so it’s looking up,” he added.

Indeed, The Guardian cited data from Zap-Map that revealed 16,000 publicly accessible EV chargers had been installed in the U.K. in 2023 alone, representing a 43% annual increase and pushing the nation’s total to 53,000.

In order to encourage the take-up of clean electric vehicles instead of dirty-fuel-powered cars, an abundant charging network is required to ease the fears of potential EV drivers about the ability to charge vehicles easily.

A study published in the Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives journal in November, shared by ScienceDirect, showed that insufficient charging stations was the second-biggest barrier among respondents to buying an EV. 

Since EVs are far less polluting than internal combustion engine cars, encouraging more drivers to go electric has huge benefits for the planet. EVs also need less maintenance and are cheaper to refuel. 

But there is a responsibility among governments and companies to not only boost the number of EV charging points but to also adequately maintain the ones that are already available.

The example from Tom on TikTok puts into sharp focus the need to ensure proper care for this infrastructure.

“Proof we cannot have anything nice,” one person commented on Tom’s video. 

“We also need to look after what we have cause if we just wreck them, they gonna get written off,” another said.

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