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home > news > Studies and Surveys > Faulty, Hard-to-Find Public Chargers Threaten to “Short Circuit” Shift to EVs

It’s a good thing most EV owners today tend to charge at home or the office. While there are more and more public chargers dotting the landscape, motorists who use them have discovered they’re far too frequently broken or difficult to use.

And that, warns a new study by J.D. Power, could “short-circuit” the adoption of battery-electric vehicles. The research firm asked owners of all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles about their experiences using both standard and high-speed public charging stations. And the overall response wasn’t very positive — though it varied significantly depending upon charge station brands, Tesla receiving the most positive responses.

“Public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike,” said Brent Gruber, Power’s executive director of global automotive. “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 results of the study provide a warning for operators of public charging stations — such as EVgo, which was the lowest-ranked quick charge operator, according to Power. But it also should concern automakers like General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen, each investing tens of billions of dollars to bring new battery cars to market.

Sales of all-electric models quintupled between 2019 and 2021, ending last year at 5% of the overall U.S. market. Demand rose 66% year-over-year during the first half of 2022, and some forecasts project BEVs will reach 20% of U.S. new vehicle sales by mid-decade. But a number of obstacles stand in the way of that escalating growth rate, most experts agree.

Public charging poses numerous obstacles, starting with the lack of availability. A separate survey of 1,100 American motorists released this past week by CDK Global found 60% saying the lack of availability is a concern that might influence whether they would buy an EV.

That is echoed by the Power study, which also shows that for current EV owners, there are a number of other issues, including the cost and speed of charging, as well as the frequency at which they find public chargers out of order.

About one in five who tried to use a public station reported instances where they couldn’t get a charge. In the vast majority of instances, it appeared to be the result of a charger malfunction.

“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,” said Gruber. “Then, we need to make sure those stations are reliable.”

There are two different categories of public chargers. Satisfaction with 240-volt systems — which typically require many hours to replenish a drained battery — was tepid and declined from prior years. On average, they scored 633 points out of a possible 1,000, down from 643 points a year ago. That may reflect the increasing demand for a rapid charging experience, at least when a driver is on the road and not parked for the night.

But motorists weren’t all that satisfied with DC quick chargers, either. They scored just 674 points in the latest Power study, the same as last year.

Faulty equipment is one reason, but Power found motorists had other complaints, starting with the price they pay at public quick chargers. That can run two to four times more per kilowatt-hour than EV owners pay to charge up at home, bringing the cost of energy close to what owners of gas-powered vehicles pay per mile.

Owners gave public quick chargers a score of just 473 on pricing, Power reports, with Level 2 chargers coming in at 446 points.

Speed of charging is another concern, and it also varies widely. The first generation of quick chargers supplied 50 kilowatts of energy, though newer systems put out either 150 or 350 kW. The difference can substantially stretch or shorten the time a vehicle needs to be plugged in.

And both the Power and CDK studies makes it clear that EV owners are looking to bring charging times down closer to what they’re used to when filling up a gas tank.

There, manufacturers need to pay attention. The technology they use in their vehicles can determine charging speed as much as the power available at a public station. And most of the EVs now on the market cannot use the fastest, 350 kW systems. Those that can cut charging times down to 20 minutes or less under optimal conditions.

The first wave of chargers tended to be located in isolated locations where motorists had little to do but sit and wait. And that’s another issue, the Power study reveals, Gruber noting owners “indicate they need more options for things to do during each charging session to enhance convenience and fill the down time.”

Significantly, more and more public chargers are opening up at restaurants, banks, supermarkets and shopping centers. Ikea is adding chargers at 25 locations, for example, while General Motors is partnering with Flying J to set up 2,000 chargers at existing service stations.

The Power study found that, after all factors are considered, there’s a wide gap between charger brands when it comes to satisfying customers. Tesla topped the charts for both Level 2 and DC quick chargers with scores of 680 and 739, respectively. Blink was the lowest-ranked Level 2 brand, at 560, while EVgo anchored the quick charge category at 573.

Tesla recently announced plans to open up its charging network to owners of vehicles from other brands. But that could cause a challenge for existing Tesla owners who have reported long waiting times to access chargers at some locations — especially in California, currently the largest EV market in the U.S.

This is so amazing. Unlike ICE vehicles where you know the fuel is going in a car because it is so intuitive thru many inputs we know and see, E V’s just don’t have anything that tells us that is happening. It can happen, but probably won’t. A plug with associated “tells” is very possible, but with all the other problems with electric vehicles, sustainability will never happen for the long term. So sad.

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