The AA has seen a dramatic drop in electric vehicles running out of charge, reflected in its latest breakdown data.

The AA said the 70% drop in out-of-charge breakdowns is a clear sign that range, infrastructure and education are improving

The number of ‘out-of-charge’ EV breakdowns was running at 8% of all EV breakdowns four years ago and dropped to 4% of breakdowns in 2022. This year the figures have dropped further and are running at just 2.1% of EV breakdowns, equating to a 73% drop.

And in May, EVs out of charge were less than 2% for the first time, standing at 1.8% of the AA’s total EV workload, which equated to 135 breakdowns.

Speaking today at the Annual EV Infrastructure Summit, AA president Edmund King said the big decline was due to the longer ranges on new EVs, as well as the growth in the public charging network and better driver awareness of when, where, and how to charge.

King also said the increase in domestic and work-place chargers was a factor, as shown by latest figures from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) on take-up of charging grants.

He added that the new AA data shows ‘charging anxiety’ does not match the reality.

“The 70% drop in out-of-charge breakdowns is a clear sign that range, infrastructure, and education are improving. Of course, we need a concerted effort to continue the roll-out of reliable and accessible charging to fill in the gaps and to address the problem for those that don’t have off-street parking to charge.

“The vast majority of EV owners do most of their charging at home or on-street close to home and then use the charging network to top up whilst on those more infrequent longer journeys. With a little planning, stopping off to charge up can be convenient and enhance road safety as taking a break is recommended every two hours or so.”

The AA added that in many EV ‘out-of-charge’ cases the vehicle is not actually out of charge, but the driver has called out a patrol as the EV is low on charge. In Norway, which has a much higher concentration of EVs than the UK, the percentage of out of charges is just 1%.

Running out of petrol / diesel is also consistently 1% of the AA’s workload, and the organisation believes that EVs will end up at this same run rate in time.

Melanie Shufflebotham, COO of Zapmap, said of the figures: “The dramatic fall in the number of EV breakdowns caused by running out of charge is clear evidence that ‘charging anxiety’ should no longer be a key concern for drivers.

“At the end of May this year there were 43,626 charging points across the UK, across 25,413 charging locations, representing a massive 38% increase since May 2022.

“There’s no doubt that the infrastructure is improving all the time, and hopefully this welcome report will encourage even more drivers to make the switch to cleaner and greener transport.”