- Tesla Superchargers are the most reliable public chargers, according to a new survey of EV owners.
- That’s no surprise, as the brand’s chargers are famously the most trustworthy and consistent options for EV drivers.
- All of the big charging providers did better in the real world than consumers expect, suggesting that chargers are more reliable than consumers realize.
In just the two years I’ve been working here, I’ve seen America’s public charging infrastructure improve dramatically. Not only have I seen way more stalls pop up around my part of San Diego, I’ve also seen charge-point operators replace old, unreliable stations with new, much more dependable ones. But as a new survey from Escalent shows, some still have more work to do.
In a survey of 209 EV drivers, Escalent asked owners about charging network reliability. They broke it into two parts: How reliable do you expect chargers on each network to be, and how reliable have they been in your direct personal experience? Both questions are ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most reliable. And you can probably guess who comes out on top:
It’s no surprise to see Tesla Superchargers at the top of the list. Tesla is well known for having the reliable and ubiquitous set of chargers, with a pretty seamless plug-and-play experience, especially for Tesla vehicles.
But the top-line numbers aren’t too bad for the rest of the industry. Asked how satisfied they are with public charger reliability in general, on a scale from one to five with five being the most reliable, most buyers seem highly satisfied. A full 45% rate their satisfaction five out of five, with 29% giving their experience a four out of five. Only 2% answered one—”very dissatisfied.” Note that this may be skewed by the sample, though, as 51% of respondents drive Teslas, which have a pretty seamless native charging experience.
But the overall satisfaction figure isn’t the only good news. As you can see from the chart, all of the largest charging network ranked higher in experienced reliability—based on the last six months of respondents’ experience—than in expected reliability. That means there’s a considerable gap between how unreliable consumers think charging stations are and what their real-world experience suggests.
That’s no surprise. Public sentiment tends to lag behind on-the-ground developments, and infrastructure has been improving rapidly. I no longer seriously worry about not being able to charge at an Electrify America, EVgo or Supercharger station, the only networks I regularly use. I’ve had to re-authorize a session here or there after minor payment snags, but the only charge failures I’ve had in the last 18 months were during the Amazon Web Services outage, which made it impossible for my Ioniq 5 XRT to charge at a Supercharger.
That, to me, is a great sign. Gas stations still sometimes have broken credit card terminals, and pumps go down, but by and large you know you’re going to be able to fill up if you go to a decent station. I’m getting to that point with public fast chargers, too. So long as there’s more than one stall, I really don’t worry about it. If things keep improving at this rate, I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about, either.
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