J.D. Power Finds Public-Charging Infrastructure Improving

Electric vehicle owner satisfaction with the public-charging experience improved for two consecutive quarters in the first half of 2024, says J.D. Power in its latest study. The automotive data and analytics firm’s U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Public Charging Study tracks EV owner satisfaction with public charging at Level 2 and DC fast-charging stations.

Related: What Is Level 1, 2, 3 Charging?

Growing Pains

As J.D. Power notes, the number of public chargers is growing; however, it’s not keeping pace with EV sales, leading to an increase in the number of EVs per public charging station. In recent years, the firm notes, this has been a leading factor in declining owner satisfaction with the public charging experience.

Now in its fourth year, the study measures satisfaction in 10 areas. In order of importance, they are: ease of charging, speed of charging, physical condition of charging station, availability of chargers, convenience of this location, things to do while charging, how safe owners feel at a location, ease of finding a location, cost of charging and ease of payment. Survey results from 9,605 EV and plug-in hybrid owners were aggregated into scores ranking charging networks on a 1,000-point scale.

Topline Results

Overall satisfaction with DC fast charging increased 10 points from the 2023 study, to 664. Overall satisfaction with Level 2 charging, on the other hand, slipped 3 points to 614.

“Among users of Level 2 chargers, satisfaction improves in five of the 10 factors that make up overall satisfaction, and among DC fast charger users, satisfaction is up in six of the 10 categories,” Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, noted in a statement. While the overall score for Level 2 charging stations is down from 2023’s level, Gruber said it has increased for the past two quarters.

Overall Customer Satisfaction, Level 2 Charging

• Tesla Destination: 658
• Volta: 645
• ChargePoint: 626
• Blink: 562

Overall Customer Satisfaction, DC Fast Charging

• Tesla Supercharger: 731
• ChargePoint: 627
• EVgo: 566
• Electrify America: 559

The Great Tesla Democratization

The 2024 EVX Public Charging Study gives an early look at consumer reactions to Tesla opening its charging network to non-Tesla drivers.

“Overall, both Tesla and non-Tesla owners find charging their vehicles at Tesla Supercharger facilities is most satisfying,” Gruber said. He went on to note, however, “Since the beginning of the year, J.D. Power has seen a decline in satisfaction with the availability of Superchargers among Tesla owners.”

The Supercharging experience still differs for Tesla drivers and owners of other brands’ EVs. Tesla owners rated the Supercharger network 743 overall, while the network scored only 706 with non-Tesla owners. Still, that 706 is 42 points higher than survey respondents’ overall satisfaction with public DC fast charging as a whole. J.D. Power says the greatest difference between Tesla and non-Tesla owners’ scoring of Superchargers is in the ease of payment and ease of charging. Tesla owners benefit from a virtually seamless plug-and-pay process that automatically identifies the vehicle when it’s plugged in and bills the owner; this functionality is not yet available to owners of non-Tesla EVs. And for now, while other brands’ EVs can use Tesla charging stations, they require adapters to connect the Tesla plug to the vehicle’s charge port.

Payment Complaints

Owners don’t just appreciate streamlined payment at Tesla chargers; survey respondents universally praised systems such as Plug & Charge, which operates like Tesla’s automatic payment function. Such systems scored 886 for ease of payment and 806 for ease of charging, compared to 860 and 787, respectively, for charging sessions using a mobile app and 631 and 596 for sessions using a credit or debit card.

Those results can seem to be unnecessarily punishing what at first glance sounds like a minor inconvenience, but Gruber said the extra steps of paying for a charge through an app adds an average of seven minutes to a fast-charging session or eight minutes when using a card. That’s a significant increase from the 27 minutes an average charging session takes with an automatic payment method.

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Systemic Impatience

As EVs continue to account for a larger share of new-vehicle sales, the number of owners satisfied with charging speed at Level 2 stations decreased 4 points from the 2023 study, to 451. DC fast charging, however, increased 34 points in this metric, from 588 last year to 622.

“DC fast charger speed is an important area of progress for the industry this year,” Gruber said. “All charge-point operators improve in this area, particularly some of the non-Tesla networks, which is good news for the developing charging landscape.”

The Old Nonfunctioning Charger Bugaboo

Inoperable chargers remain a consistent issue, with 19% of survey respondents having reported not being able to charge their vehicle in the 2024 study. J.D. Power notes the reason for not being able to charge varies by region, but 61% of failed charging sessions were because the charger was out of service or wouldn’t work. A lack of available chargers or overlong wait times were an issue for 20% of owners in the Middle Atlantic, Pacific and East North Central regions. Damaged cables or connectors stymied 10% of owners.

While the overall satisfaction scores are up from 2023’s results, the 2024 EVX Public Charging Study shows clear room for growth. Luckily, it’s not just J.D. Power who recognizes the opportunity. Expect to see future studies track improvement as public-charging infrastructure expands.

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