The number of electric vehicles on the roads is steadily increasing, along with the development of charging station infrastructure. However, a new study reveals that the experience of charging electric vehicles in the U.S. is still quite far from ideal. By analyzing the performance of 20,000 charging stations across the U.S. over a four-year period, researchers from ChargerHelp identified the major issues within the infrastructure.
It was found that the actual uptime of charging stations is only 73.7%, whereas network providers claim it to be 84.6%. This indicates that the reality falls short of the promises made.
The study concludes that electric vehicle chargers can fail in various ways. Problems include malfunctioning cable retraction systems, broken screens, and non-functional payment systems. There are also frequent issues such as general casing damage, as well as broken cables and connectors.
The research revealed that 26% of all analyzed stations do not match the reported status of chargers as displayed in the network's software. This means that some charging networks overstate the number of available stations, undermining the trust of electric vehicle owners in the charging infrastructure. This is particularly problematic when someone urgently needs a charge and arrives at a station that, despite its app status, is actually unavailable.
The study lists various scenarios where an electric vehicle driver is unable to successfully connect to a charger. It mentions cases of "ghost" stations, where stations are listed in the app but either do not exist or are out of order. There are also "zombie stations," which exist and function but are not displayed in apps, causing drivers to overlook them. The "busy confusion" scenario occurs when an app informs drivers that certain stations are available when they are not. The "dead end" situation refers to when the unreliability of a charging station is only discovered after the vehicle has already been connected to it.
ChargerHelp asserts that reliable software interaction and data exchange within networks can help address these issues.
Source: The Verge
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