Are your digital channels ready for a surge in demand from EV owners?

Are you ready for a surge in customers requiring new electricity connections in order to charge their electric vehicles? If not, it’s certainly worth considering.  

What channels do you have in place to meet an increase in demand on this scale?  

The average pure-electric market share has risen significantly in recent years, currently sitting at 4.7%, up from 1.7% for the whole of 2019. With Boris Johnson having today announced a plan to ban sales of petrol and diesel-powered cars in the UK beginning in 2030, this trend and percentage of market share is only going to increase.  

Do your digital channels enable your customers to:  

• Create applications for new electricity connections for their EV charging points at their address?
• Create quotations for new electricity connections/moving existing connections? 
• Disconnect existing electricity connections when moving to a new house?  

If not, this could not only be causing your customers to sit in long queues to speak to your customer service representatives, but it could also be costing you money. If you’re not preparing to provide your customers with this service, you could be missing out on a golden opportunity.  

Luckily, we can help you seize this opportunity, keeping you ahead of the game and providing your customers with the efficient self-serve experiences they’ve come to expect.  

Deloitte’s global forecast has outlined a “compound annual growth rate of 29% achieved over the next 10 years: Total EV sales growing from 2.5 million in 2020 to 11.2 million in 2025, then reaching 31.3 million by 2030. EVs would secure approximately 32 percent of the total market share for new car sales”. 

Having visibility of this market segmentation enables energy network providers to seize the opportunity to create simple, fluid customer journeys for their customers who have made the transition from a petrol/diesel powered car, to the much cleaner and environmentally friendly option, and are looking to…  

• Access a quote for a new electricity connection to charge that vehicle;  
• Better understand the costs of charging their chosen vehicle;  
• Discover the time it takes to charge their chosen vehicle;  
• Locate charging points within their area. 
  

We have experience of working with several clients within the utilities sector, specifically distribution network operators such as Electricity North West and the UK’s largest listed water company, United Utilities.  

Our work with Electricity North West has helped them to streamline previously long, paper-based 'connections' services, keeping things simple for the customer, and handling complex integrations with multiple back-end technologies. The work we have undertaken has increased self-service and customer satisfaction, whilst simultaneously improving the efficiency of the sales process.  

Here’s a video that explains exactly what the “Connections” tool does, and what it achieves for both Electricity North West’s customers, and their internal teams – reducing applications times for a new connection from an average of 3.5 days to 20 minutes.  

Could a similar service help your customers create new enquiries for EV charging point connections, enable them to locate their local charging stations, save your customers time waiting to speak to one of your advisors regarding their enquiry, or better understand the costs incurred for charging their vehicle?  

If you’re looking to gain competitive advantage, get ahead of the curve and present your customers with a connections service specifically tailored to electric vehicles, contact us today.