British EV charger provider Osprey is renewing its focus on the user experience at its charging hubs, as it believes it has solved the issue of charger reliability.
CEO Ian Johnston told Autocar Business: “We shouldn’t be talking about reliability in 2022. We should now be talking about which [charging] experience you prefer best, and that's where you will see the likes of Osprey and others competing head to head to try to deliver you the best experience – because reliability is a 2020 problem, not a 2023 problem.”
In the 2022 What Car? Electric Car Charging Survey, Osprey finished third overall, recording an 80.6% score for reliability according to feedback from motorists.
That placed Osprey well ahead of rivals including Gridserve Electric Highway (23.7%), BP Pulse (36.9%) and Ionity (60.6%) but behind the Tesla Supercharger network (82.3%) and Instavolt (92.6%).
Many companies have progress to make if they're to satisfy an upcoming UK law requiring a 99% uptime from charging providers.
Johnston believes that – beyond reliability – Osprey can separate itself from the likes of Gridserve and Tesla by providing the best user experience. This would comprise improvements to the services available on site, to the charging experience itself and by tailoring each location to its users’ demands.
“What we are trying to do is provide amenities that suit the dwell time on the site," said Johnston.
“If it's a destination charge and you're looking to spend an hour or so, that's where you will see us put those [rapid] charging hubs – in places like supermarkets and retail parks.
“In terms of people who are stopping on route as part of a nice journey, that's where we're working with our QSR [quick-service restaurant] partners to give people access to hot drinks and quick snack food as well.
“So we've got some partnerships [and] we're announcing in the next few months with some of the leading fast-food and coffee businesses as well.”
In 2018, charging provider Incharge partnered with McDonald’s in the Netherlands to offer rapid chargers to the latter’s customers. This was largely successful, with InCharge adding another 167 chargers over the next three years.
In the long term, Osprey plans to introduce plug-and-charge technology that allows people to plug their EV in, charge and drive away, with the transaction automatically handled by the car, the charging provider or a third party.
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Osprey are clearly trying to justify the huge price gouging they are engaged in by saying they have superior reliability. With most fast chargers now at 60p/kwh and some still at 35-40p/kwh, Osprey is £1. So, using an Osprey charger is the most expensive option in the UK and makes running an EV more expensive than petrol or diesel by quite a margin. Totally unjustifiable and a reason to avoid Osprey if at all possible, whatever flim-flam Johnston is expounding in this interview.