The Biden administration’s push toward electric vehicles is hitting speed bumps as a new poll shows thousands of EV owners are struggling to charge their cars while away from home.
Consumer research firm J.D. Power released its second annual United States Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study last week, showing that 20% of EV owners reported “operability and maintenance a key issue” at public charging stations.
“The study finds that one out of every five respondents ended up not charging their vehicle during their visit,” J.D. Power reported. “Of those who didn’t charge, 72% indicated that it was due to the station malfunctioning or being out of service.”
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Other issues include charging stations’ availability and people’s lack of satisfaction with things to do while they wait for their vehicles to charge.
“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,” said Brent Gruber, executive director of global automotive at J.D. Power. “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.”
University of Massachusetts Amherst Ethan Zuckerman has owned the electric Chevrolet Bolt for several years. He told the New York Times that charging troubles and the lengthy wait times make it difficult to abandon a gas vehicle fully.
“Often, those fast chargers have real maintenance issues,” Zuckerman said. “When they do, you very quickly find yourself in pretty dire straits.”
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J.D. Power’s U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study surveyed 11,554 owners of battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, between January and June 2022.
