The recent publishing of Plug In America's Annual EV Driver Survey Report has good news and bad. Unfortunately, the bad news should worry Charge Point Operators and the tech vendors they rely upon. 

I am struck by the delta between American EV drivers’ overall customer satisfaction (CSat) and their satisfaction with their public charging experience, as reported in Plug In America’s 2024 Annual EV Driver Survey Report*. Ninety percent of respondents were satisfied with their EV purchase and said that an EV would be their next car, too. That’s good! Only 40% of drivers were satisfied with the reliability of public chargers. That’s bad! 

There’s also a quantity challenge. Only 38% were satisfied with the availability of public chargers near them, a well-known hurdle in the US. That 50 point gap should be setting off alarm bells.

It’s important to note that 91% of EV owners charge at home, half of them charging daily. That makes their need for public charging less critical, but certainly a top concern for long trips. 

As stated in previous cleantech insiders posts, overcoming the EV charging challenge is the key to transitioning from the early adopter to majority phases of market maturity. Though battery range and the availability of public charging are two of the top three concerns for EV buyers before their purchase, range anxiety is cut in half after the purchase (70% to 35%). Charger availability and reliability stays stuck near the 40% after the purchase. 

Since a third of the survey respondents live in California, Texas, and New York, where EVs and charging are more prevalent, this challenge is particularly tough for EV drivers in heavily rural states, like the Dakotas. 

The Quality Challenge

Clearly there is a customer experience issue that must be addressed by Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and charging hardware vendors. The survey makes an interesting point of distinction between the charging experience of Tesla drivers versus all other models. Thirty one percent of Tesla drivers are concerned about chargers being non-functional or broken, whereas 92% of non-Tesla drivers report that concern. NOTE: The data does not say that 92% and 31% of chargers were broken, just that their experiences are raising that concern. 

How many drivers of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are worried about gas pumps not working? Probably none due to adequate standards, regulation, and inspections. 

There are other concerns of note for Charge Point Operators: there are not enough chargers, they are too far apart, charging speeds are too slow, and there are not enough other amenities at the station. All of these are mentioned by over 50% of non-Tesla drivers. For Tesla drivers, only the amenity issues rise above the 50% mark. 

Tesla’s focus on customer experience and the vertical integration of their technology appears to yield positive customer satisfaction ratings for their customers. The lack of a customer experience focus of other CPOs yields a major roadblock to EV adoption. 

The Quantity Challenge

Both auto manufacturers and EV charging companies have said that the pace of EV adoption must parallel the availability of public charging. If there are too many EV drivers and few charging options, that leads to dissatisfaction, as the survey bears this out. If there are too many charging stations and few EV drivers, that leads to bankrupt CPOs and a poor public perception of the EV option. 

The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation reported in July 2024 that there are 70,600 public EV charging stations in the US, with a total of more than 188,300 individual charging ports. Big numbers, but the US is a big country. By contrast, the Netherlands has over 200,000 public EV charging points as of mid-2024. 

US @ 188K vs. NL @ 200K — The Dutch punch above their weight!

The Federal Government’s efforts to subsidize the roll-out of EV charging networks, particularly on major highways, has hit a snag. Some states have already received funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and are in rolling out stations. Others are waiting to see if the courts will force the Trump Administration to release funds already authorized for them. 

Of course, private charging networks have been ramping up for the past two decades. The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation reports that ChargePoint has the largest charging network in the USA with over 38,500 stations and 70,000 individual charging ports — 3,300 of which are fast charging ports. Tesla is the closest rival with roughly 6,500 station locations and about 36,500 charging ports between its Destination and Supercharger networks. Tesla’s Supercharger network alone has 2,300 stations with over 26,000 fast-charging ports. Electrify America is next in line, with more than 900 stations and almost 4,300 fast-charging ports. 

Again, big numbers, but when will the US beat the Dutch?

Addressing the Dual Challenges

Fortunately, cross auto brand initiatives such as the ChargeX Consortium and IONNA are focused on overcoming these challenges by creating large vertically integrated networks. ChargeX is specifically focused on charging on US Federal Highways, while IONNA is an auto manufacturers consortium with representatives of most major EV makers, except Tesla, Rivian and Ford. In their press release on Feb 4, 2025, IONNA states that they currently have 100 charging sites contracted and plans to deploy over 1,000 live charging bays by the end of 2025.

ChargePoint is also working to address the reliability challenge with their Network Operations Center (NOC), which offers proactive, 24/7  station monitoring and predictive analytics to ensure charger uptime.

These are welcome solutions. However, the standards for fueling are typically set at a national level with inspection conducted at the state level. There are currently legislative efforts in many states to inspect and enforce charging standards, but they must be set at the national level first. 

cleantech insiders will report more on progress of these efforts, as this may be the primary challenge to overcome to ensure mass EV adoption in the United States. 

* The Plug In America survey was conducted in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute’s EVs2Scale2030 initiative from January through March 2024. The survey included 4,200 respondents, of which more than 3,300 of those were current EV drivers.