The Christmas countdown is on, and Xcite Car Leasing have revealed how many charges it would take Santa, if he swapped his reindeer for a popular EV, to travel across 20 of the top EV-friendly countries.
They also compared how many chargers there are per country and the cost Mr Claus would accumulate for these journeys.
Santa’s EV would need 48,411 charges and cost him £339,839 ($700,000 NZ)
To get across 20 of the most EV-friendly countries, Santa would need to charge his EV at least 48,411 times! Which would cost him a staggering £339,839.
| Country | Surface area (sq. mi.) | No. of charges required | No. of EV chargers available | EV chargers per 100 sq. mi. | Charge time at 7kW (days) | Charge time at 22kW (days) | Charge time at 150kW (days) | Charge time at 350kW (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 11,849 | 44 | 25,478 | 215 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 0.3 |
| Switzerland | 15,940 | 60 | 19,473 | 122 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 0.4 |
| Netherlands | 16,040 | 60 | 72,000 | 449 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 0.4 |
| Denmark | 16,584 | 62 | 5,964 | 36 | 22 | 7 | 1 | 0.4 |
| Portugal | 35,603 | 133 | 5,100 | 14 | 48 | 15 | 2 | 1 |
| South Korea | 38,741 | 145 | 105,000 | 271 | 52 | 16 | 2 | 1 |
| Iceland | 39,769 | 149 | 410 | 1 | 53 | 17 | 2 | 1 |
| Greece | 50,949 | 191 | 967 | 2 | 68 | 22 | 3 | 1 |
| UK | 93,628 | 351 | 59,059 | 63 | 125 | 40 | 6 | 3 |
| New Zealand | 103,483 | 388 | 340 | 0.3 | 138 | 44 | 6 | 3 |
Key findings:
- The Netherlands have the most chargers per sq mi, with 449. As well as having 72,000 chargers available across the whole country, which was the third smallest in the ones analysed.
- South Korea has the most chargers in the top 10, with an impressive 105,000, that’s 271 per sq mi.
- Belgium was at the top of the list, being the smallest country analysed, Santa would only need to charge his EV 44 times, at least there are over 25,000 ports available.
- Although Santa usually delivers all his presents in one night, unless he could find 150kw and 350kw chargers, he wouldn’t be able to deliver his presents in less than a day. In fact, even in the UK and New Zealand on a 7KW charger, it would take 125 and 138 days to cross the whole country.
Santa’s sleigh would need charging 351 times to get around the UK
Being one of the smaller countries with a dense population, Santa would need to make 351 stops to charge his EV sleigh while in the UK. At the fastest ultra-rapid charging level of 350kW, it would take three days to complete all of these charges, or 125 days if he was hooked up to a 7kW charger.
Luckily the UK has 3,961 free EV charging points. Scotland has 1,343 free public charging points, mostly thanks to ChargePlace Scotland’s network. The South East of England has 566 in total, while Greater London has 353.
Of the free charging points, 3,275 are fast chargers, while 283 are rapid. Of these, 586 are found in supermarkets, with 472 in dealership forecourts.
Santa’s EV charging bill would be £7,154 in the UK ($14,000NZ)
Even though the UK is one of the smallest countries on the list in terms of surface area, the ballooning energy prices mean Santa would have a large bill on his hands to charge his electric sleigh when travelling through if he needed to.
The cost of electricity in the UK is 34 per kWh, which is the fifth-highest price of all 20 analysed countries, so it would be pretty expensive for Santa to visit 24.7 million homes in the UK.
Because of this, the UK ranked 13th out of possible 20 countries, costing Santa £7,154 if he paid every time he charged his EV sleigh. Switzerland and South Korea were the cheapest countries to cross in terms of energy, both costing £670, however, South Korea is larger but had a lower energy rate cost.
Credit Xcite Car Leasing https://xcitecarleasing.co.uk/car-leasing/personal-leasing/
