Electric vehicles are poised to revolutionize the world, but the transition to electric vehicles will not be an easy or simple task. One of the more complex and expensive parts of the transition has to do with charging infrastructure, and America and the world will need many charging stations very soon. Unfortunately, some of the current networks in the US aren’t great, and here’s a look at the worst charging network in America right now.
An overview of JD Power’s charging network study
EV charging station | Getty Images
JD Power recently released its second annual study called the JD Power US Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study. As the name of the study suggests, the purpose of the study is to ask EV owners what they think about the use of public chargers in the US.
The survey also asked EV owners for their opinion on two types of chargers, Level 2 chargers and DC fast chargers. The owners then rated their satisfaction with these chargers based on 10 categories. These 10 categories included how easy it was to charge a car, how fast it was to charge a car, the cost of charging the car, and how easy it was to pay for that charging cost.
Drivers were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the location of these charging stations. This included questions about how easy it was to find the charging station, the convenience of the charging station, the security of that charging station, the physical conditions of the charging station, the availability of chargers, and the things EV owners can do while they’re waiting. that your car is charged at the charging station.
Worst charging networks of all
After all this survey data is added up, a charging network could achieve a maximum score of 1,000. Regarding Level 2, the segment average was a score of 633. The Level 2 networks that performed below this average were the SemaConnect network with a score of 577 and the Blink network with a score of 560.
For DC fast charging, the segment average was 674 points. Most DC fast charging networks were even below this average. ChargePoint DC fast charging scored 644, and Electrify America’s fast charging network scored 614. However, the worst DC fast charging belonged to EVgo, a company that works with General Motors. It has an overall satisfaction score of just 573.
The Tesla Supercharger Network was rated the best of all
In comparison, Tesla’s charging network performed very well in the study. The Tesla Supercharger network was the only DC fast charging network to perform above the segment average. It had an overall satisfaction score of 739, making it a significantly more satisfying network than EVgo’s. Tesla’s Level 2 charging network also performed very well.
The Tesla Destination network, as the automaker’s Level 2 charging network is called, had an overall satisfaction score of 680, making it the most satisfying Level 2 charging network, beating out the Volta and ChargePoint networks.
While this study highlighted the differences in satisfaction between different charging networks, it’s important to note that most EV owners were satisfied with how easy it was to charge their car. Overall, owners gave this category a score of 745. It’s just that with networks like EVgo and Blink, owners were less than happy with everything else about charging.