Photo: Tesla Motors
Using an electric vehicle can be a happy or a frustrating experience, and a recent survey made by JD Power in the U.S. showed that some owners are not as happy as they were last year. The good news is that the situation can be improved, and the vehicles themselves are not to blame. Instead, publicly available charging networks may bring unpleasant experiences.
When they collected the data for the survey, which was done from January through June 2022, the folks over at JD Power surveyed 11,554 owners of EVs and plug-in hybrids. The focus was on customer satisfaction with EV charging, and it was graded on a 1,000-point scale.
The makers of the survey looked at both public Level 2 chargers, which are not that fast, but will get the job done eventually, and the level of satisfaction from DC fast chargers, which are more expensive to use, but yield faster charging times.
The latter is best used when you need to charge as fast as possible while on a road trip, while the former is suitable for increasing your charge level while going to the supermarket, the mall, or at a restaurant. You can use either system when going to a hotel or another venue that has a charger.
According to JD Power, satisfaction with DC fast chargers in the U.S. is unchanged from 2021, when the first edition of the study was made, and it sits at 674 points. Not too shabby, not fabulous. Meanwhile, with Level 2 chargers, people are not as happy as they were last year, figures show.
The survey notes a 10-point drop in customer satisfaction from 643 to 633 points out of a maximum of 1,000 points. While it is tough to get a feel for how happy other people were with something, it does provide a general idea of the situation.
Fortunately, JD Power did provide additional information to enable us to have a context of the entire situation. While it is easier than ever to locate a public charger, one in five respondents said that they ended up not charging from the Level 2 plugs that they found because the station was either out of service or malfunctioning.
Tesla manages to top customer satisfaction surveys on this aspect with its Destination wall chargers, which are Level 2 units, but have a satisfaction rating of 680 out of 1,000 points, which is the highest in the survey. With the company's fast chargers, called Superchargers, the satisfaction level is through the roof, as you might say, with 739 points.
Tesla has 6,798 Supercharger plugs in the U.S. according to figures from the Department of Energy. Those charging points do not work with other brands' EVs, and are locked within the Tesla system, which explains their reliability.
By the end of this year, people with different-brand EVs will be able to have access to the Tesla Supercharger network with the use of an adapter, as well as with a special card or account that will allow them to get the chargers started. It will be interesting to see the same study next year, as well as two years from now.
Other EV charging companies did not fare as well as Tesla did. In Level 2 charging, Volta got 667 points, ChargePoint raised 639 points, and SemaConnect got 557 points. Blink was fifth with 560 points. When DC charging was concerned, ChargePoint took the lead after Tesla with 644 points, followed by Electrify America with 614, and EVgo with 573.
The main takeaway is that most owners are relatively satisfied with the ease of the charging process, but public charger maintenance, as well as operability, is a key issue.
This is not great news if you consider increasing sales of EVs, which will only make current stations more crowded. The solution is to increase the number of stations, as well as ensure that all existing ones operate as intended.
The makers of the survey looked at both public Level 2 chargers, which are not that fast, but will get the job done eventually, and the level of satisfaction from DC fast chargers, which are more expensive to use, but yield faster charging times.
The latter is best used when you need to charge as fast as possible while on a road trip, while the former is suitable for increasing your charge level while going to the supermarket, the mall, or at a restaurant. You can use either system when going to a hotel or another venue that has a charger.
According to JD Power, satisfaction with DC fast chargers in the U.S. is unchanged from 2021, when the first edition of the study was made, and it sits at 674 points. Not too shabby, not fabulous. Meanwhile, with Level 2 chargers, people are not as happy as they were last year, figures show.
The survey notes a 10-point drop in customer satisfaction from 643 to 633 points out of a maximum of 1,000 points. While it is tough to get a feel for how happy other people were with something, it does provide a general idea of the situation.
Fortunately, JD Power did provide additional information to enable us to have a context of the entire situation. While it is easier than ever to locate a public charger, one in five respondents said that they ended up not charging from the Level 2 plugs that they found because the station was either out of service or malfunctioning.
Tesla manages to top customer satisfaction surveys on this aspect with its Destination wall chargers, which are Level 2 units, but have a satisfaction rating of 680 out of 1,000 points, which is the highest in the survey. With the company's fast chargers, called Superchargers, the satisfaction level is through the roof, as you might say, with 739 points.
Tesla has 6,798 Supercharger plugs in the U.S. according to figures from the Department of Energy. Those charging points do not work with other brands' EVs, and are locked within the Tesla system, which explains their reliability.
By the end of this year, people with different-brand EVs will be able to have access to the Tesla Supercharger network with the use of an adapter, as well as with a special card or account that will allow them to get the chargers started. It will be interesting to see the same study next year, as well as two years from now.
Other EV charging companies did not fare as well as Tesla did. In Level 2 charging, Volta got 667 points, ChargePoint raised 639 points, and SemaConnect got 557 points. Blink was fifth with 560 points. When DC charging was concerned, ChargePoint took the lead after Tesla with 644 points, followed by Electrify America with 614, and EVgo with 573.
The main takeaway is that most owners are relatively satisfied with the ease of the charging process, but public charger maintenance, as well as operability, is a key issue.
This is not great news if you consider increasing sales of EVs, which will only make current stations more crowded. The solution is to increase the number of stations, as well as ensure that all existing ones operate as intended.
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