Manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) have been very pleased with sales in recent times, prompting more and more shoppers to either add an EV to their family fleet or abandon their gasoline-powered car altogether in favor of greener pastures.
But, in a case of be careful for what you wish for, the growth of public electric vehicle charging stations is not keeping up with demand. More so, in many areas, such as California, Washington and Texas, where it looked like they were keeping up with charging infrastructure, many of those public charging facilities just don’t work. These are just a couple of the major findings in the 2nd edition of the J.D. Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Public Charging Study.
The good news is that the number of public vehicle charging stations available is, in fact, at an all-time high. The not-so-good news is that satisfaction with public Level 2 chargers has dropped visibly from last year’s survey. Satisfaction with quicker DC chargers stayed about the same.
The combination of public charging station paucity and the unreliability of many of those that are available are leading factors that cause new vehicle shoppers to reject the idea of considering an electric vehicle.
“Public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike,” said Brent Gruber, Executive Director of Global Automotive at J.D. Power. “Not only is the availability of public charging still an obstacle, but EV owners continue to be faced with charging station equipment that is inoperable. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program promises to provide funds to states for building out their EV public charging infrastructure. This will lead to sizable growth in the availability of EV charging stations, but just adding stations isn’t the answer. Stations need to be added to areas where there are currently gaps in heavily traveled routes and in high-density areas for people who don’t have access to residential charging, but most importantly, designed with things for users to do while charging—regardless of the use case. Then, we need to make sure those stations are reliable.”
Tesla Continues to Electrify
It may come as no surprise that Tesla, which hit the road running a decade ago in regard to EV sales, has also done the same when it comes to providing reliable public charging stations for their vehicle owners. In both categories measured by the J.D. Power study, Level 2 chargers and DC fast chargers, Tesla bested the competition. And in the latter category, Tesla was the only player to score above industry average.
Other Top Study Conclusions
• Most owners appear to be satisfied with ease of charging.
• While the Pacific has the most chargers regionally, they are less satisfied than those in many Midwest and Central regions.
• Users of DC fast chargers are more likely to use available chargers on a route they pre-planned, while Level 2 users are more likely to choose a charging station based on convenience and price.
For more information about the J. D. Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Public Charging Study, click here.
