The most problem-free EV charging networks within the U.S. proper now are those constructed by Tesla and Rivian, based on a brand new survey from Consumer Reports.
The publication surveyed 1,230 house owners on their EV charging experiences between March 2024 and February 2024, and simply 4% of the respondents stated they skilled issues at Tesla’s Supercharger community. Only 5% stated they skilled issues utilizing Rivian’s Adventure Network chargers.
Owners had the worst expertise with Shell’s Recharge community, having reported an issue 48% of the time. EVgo and Blink chargers had been equally troublesome, with house owners experiencing issues 43% and 41% of the time, respectively. Other well-known networks didn’t carry out too properly, both, with house owners logging issues at Electrify America 35% of the time and at ChargePoint chargers 24% of the time. Rivian and Tesla had been the one networks in single-digits.
EVs made up greater than 8% of auto gross sales within the U.S. final yr, based on Cox Automotive, and whereas gross sales progress has cooled, total quantity remains to be rising. People are more and more embracing electrical autos, nevertheless it’s clear from Consumer Reports’ survey that lots of the charging networks meant to assist that adoption are lagging method behind. Representatives for Shell, EVgo, Blink, Electrify America, and ChargePoint didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Consumer Reports stated that the commonest reported issues throughout all networks needed to do with making funds and with the charging station {hardware} itself — particularly with the screens.
“By calling out damaged screens, fee points, and sluggish charging energy, group members are crowdsourcing information that may maintain charging networks accountable and enhance drivers’ expertise with public charging,” Consumer Reports’ marketing campaign supervisor Drew Toher stated in an announcement.
Tesla has been constructing out its Supercharger community for over a decade now, so it’s not stunning that it has hammered out loads of the problems that also plague many of those different firms. And that’s nice information for non-Tesla EV house owners or potential patrons, for the reason that firm has opened up the Supercharger community to primarily all different electrical autos.
What is a bit stunning is that Rivian is seemingly matching Tesla with regards to reliability, a minimum of based mostly on these respondents’ experiences. That means it’s off to an excellent begin with its first 100 stations. But will probably be as much as Rivian to keep up that high quality because it makes an attempt to construct the opposite 500 stations it has deliberate for North America.
