Despite growing electric car adoption in the US, fulfillment with the electric lorry charging experience continues to suffer. That’s according to a brand-new study on the EV public charging experience conducted by JD Power, which together with PlugShare has been asking EV owners about their satisfaction levels because 2021. This year, the research study discovered that people are unhappy with charge times, and one in 5 reported checking out a charger however being unable to charge.
The not-great state of public EV charging is a subject of much discussion– a story about fast battery charger dependability garnered nearly 1,200 remarks in 2015. Just about everybody who has tried to fast-charge a non-Tesla EV will have a horror story or more, and it’s a problem the car manufacturers are well aware of. That’s why the previous few months have actually seen a flurry of statements from car companies announcing a switch from the Combined Charging Standard 1 plug– previously, the de facto market requirement for non-Tesla EVs– to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. In doing so, those OEMs gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network for their customers beginning in 2024.( For more on different charging requirements and plugs, see our explainer.)DC quickly charging Looking at JD Power’s data, one can see why. For the third year running, the Tesla Supercharger network blazes a trail in customer satisfaction for DC fast charging, with an unchanged rating between 2022 and 2023
.(The research study firm asked EV owners about ease of charging, speed of charging, the physical condition of the charger, battery charger schedule, how convenient the place is, how much it costs to charge, and how easy it is to spend for the charging.) The other fast-charging networks did not fare so well, and typical complete satisfaction with DC charging dropped from 674(out of 1,000)in 2015 to 654. Electrify America appears to have the most-frustrated consumers in 2023, with
satisfaction decreasing from 614 to 538. Those networks have actually also announced support for the NACS plug, but there are no warranties that just altering the plug type will result in a remarkable charging experience. NACS uses the
to tell if it can reach the satisfaction levels of Tesla owners who are currently part of that fully integrated Tesla community,”he stated. AC charging There is even greater frustration with the state of public air conditioning (or level 2 )charging, which is now at 617 out of 1,000. In specific, EV owners have been most displeased with the speed of AC charging, with complete satisfaction declining 36 points year on year. When it came to Air conditioning charging satisfaction– its network of location battery chargers was directly beaten by Volta, Tesla actually had to settle for 2nd location.
“Although most of EV charging occurs at home, public charging needs to supply a far better experience throughout the board– not just for the users of today, however also to reduce the concerns of hesitant future customers. A lot of work is underway to attend to these problems, but there is definitely a lot more work to be done,” Gruber said.
The good news is, there are signs that some of that work will occur. JD Power found (unsurprisingly) that EV owners wanted convenient charging places, consisting of quick chargers along journey routes. That’s currently in the works– in between now and 2027, the New Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program will spend $5 billion for new DC quick chargers along highway passagesand another $2.5 billion for air conditioning battery chargers in areas that are underserved, and that money features rigorous uptime requirements.