Public charging issues could “short-circuit” electric vehicle adoption and growth among consumers, according to J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Public Charging Study.
OEMs continue to introduce new EVs and as a result are experiencing growth in market share. But public EV charging infrastructure is not keeping up and is instead falling further behind.
As a result, customer satisfaction with public Level 2 charging in the United States is down to 617 on a 1,000-point scale — a decline of 16 points from a year earlier. It is also at the lowest level since the study launched in 2021. Satisfaction with DC (direct current) fast chargers is down 20 points from 654.
“The declining customer satisfaction scores for public charging should be concerning to automakers and, more broadly, to public charging stakeholders,” said Brent Gruber, Executive Director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, in a statement. “The availability of public charging stations is still a critical obstacle, but it isn’t the only one.”
He said EV owners still have issues with several aspects around public charging, as the “cost and speed of charging and the availability of things to do while waiting for their vehicle to charge are the least satisfying aspects.”
The reliability of public chargers also remains a problem, with one in five visits ending without the driver being able to charge their vehicle. Most of these issues stem from station outages, according to Gruber. J.D. Power said satisfaction in both charging station segments (Level 2 and DC) is down in nearly every attribute measured in the study.
“Since consumer skepticism regarding public charging availability is the primary reason vehicle shoppers reject EVs, this performance could prove to be a further hindrance to EV acceptance,” they said.
