The results were drawn from the first two years of The EV Project, backed by the United States Department of Energy, which is analysing electric vehicle usage patterns based on Nissan LEAF owners in 19 metropolitan areas over a three-year period.

Between the 1st January 2012, and 31st December 2013, the project-wide average showed 84% of all charging events took place at home, with the remainder split between workplace and public charging points.

However, for the 707 LEAFs with access to workplace charging – including those who don’t use it at all – the results showed 42% of charging on working days took place at the office. Those with access to workplace charging points were more than twice as likely to charge away from home than those who don’t.

In its report, the Idaho National Laboratory said: ‘It is not yet clear how much the drivers of workplace vehicles depended on other charging locations to meet their driving needs. This question will be explored in future works to better understand the value of public charging infrastructure.

‘Other factors need to be explored as well, such as the influence of commuting distance and the cost of charging on charging behaviour.’