Public EV charging stations have increased in number, but more way to go: Study

With companies like Tesla, Electrify America, ChargePoint, and others growing, customers are finding it easier to charge.

The number of public electric vehicle charging stations has been increasing in numbers. However, despite the growth, the number is still not enough, claims a study by J.D. Power. The organisation claimed this in its newly released U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study. The study claims that electric vehicle owners in high-volume markets like California, Texas, and Washington are finding that the charging infrastructure is inadequate and frequently plagued with reliability issues.

Brent Gruber, executive director of global automotive at J.D. Power, said that public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike. “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,” he further added.

With companies like Tesla, Electrify America, ChargePoint, and others growing, customers are finding it easier to charge. However, the geographic spread of the electric vehicle chargers is inadequate compared to the demand and requirement, claims the study.

EV owners ranked the ease of finding a DC Fast Charger 724 out of 1,000 and the ease of finding a level 2 charger 683 out of 1,000, as the study revealed. The study found also found that one out of every five respondents wound up not charging their vehicle once they found a charging station. Of those, 72 per cent indicated that they didn’t charge because the station was malfunctioning or out of service.

First Published Date: 21 Aug 2022, 16:05 PM IST