Electric vehicle charging consumption peaked in August

Electric vehicle charging consumption reached the peak of the year with 97 thousand MWh in August. Peak hours, cities and the share of DC fast charging have been announced.

Electric vehicle charging stations experienced their busiest period of the year in August. A total of 97,469 MWh of electricity was consumed in more than 3.5 million charging operations during the month. In January, this figure was 60,124 MWh, meaning an increase of 62 percent in eight months. This picture, which emerged with the influence of summer holiday traffic, shows that charging stations have now become a part of daily life.

The number of vehicles is increasing, charging infrastructure is having difficulty keeping up

Behind this density is the rapidly growing vehicle park. The number of electric vehicles in Turkey increased by 53 percent in one year, reaching 476,934. The number of charging sockets increased by 43 percent to 47,908 in the same period. However, since sockets did not increase at the same pace as the number of vehicles, the number of vehicles per socket increased from 9 to 10.

Big leap in ultra-fast charging

Investors' recent shift towards stronger units partially closes this gap. The number of ultra-fast sockets over 150 kW increased by 63 percent in one year.

Users prefer DC fast charging

Users' preference is clearly for fast charging. Although DC sockets constitute less than half of the total sockets, 85.5 percent of the consumed energy was drawn from these sockets. While a charge on DC takes an average of 34 minutes, this time increases to approximately 3 hours on AC.

Busiest time is 16.00, busiest day is Saturday

Looking at electric vehicle charging habits, it seems that the busiest hour is 16:00. More than half of daily consumption occurs between noon and 20:00. At night, stations remain largely empty. Consumption on weekends is 17 percent higher than on weekdays. The busiest day of the month was Saturday, August 15th.

Istanbul comes first, holiday destinations stand out

Among the cities, Istanbul ranks first by far with 22 percent of consumption. It is followed by Ankara and Izmir. Balıkesir and Muğla's inclusion in the top 10 reflects the influence of holiday traffic, and Bolu's inclusion in the list reflects the influence of the Istanbul-Ankara route.

40 percent of the market belongs to two brands

Trugo and Zes together hold 40 percent of the market in energy sales. 62 percent of the electricity consumed was provided from green stations certified to be produced from renewable resources.

The real test in charging infrastructure is ahead of us

Although the numbers seem positive, there is a point in the table that needs attention. The number of vehicles is increasing faster than the number of sockets, and consumption is concentrated at certain hours, on certain days, and on certain routes. This means that queues at fast charging stations on the highway become longer, especially during holidays and summer holidays. However, most of the stations remain empty at night. This increases the importance of applications such as time-based pricing to encourage night charging. It is not just the number of stations that will determine the electric vehicle charging experience in the coming period. The ability to use these stations in the right place, at the right power and at the right time will be at least as decisive as the number of stations.