Earlier this year, UC Berkeley studied the Bay Area’s existing electric vehicle charging stations and found several problems. Of 657 public chargers in the Bay Area, only 72.5% of the existing charging stations functioned properly.
That means that more than a quarter of charging stations are inoperable.
- Broken connector – 0.9%
- Payment system failure – 7.2%
- Cable would not reach – 4.9%
- Failure to charge for 2 minutes – 6.4%
- Blank or error screen – 7.2%
- Internet connection issue – 1.1%
The study did not look at Tesla charging stations since not all vehicles can charge at Tesla charging stations.
The UC Berkley study coincides with a Plug-In America survey. EV users’ top complaints were broken or nonfunctional chargers, chargers being too far apart, and slow charging speed. One-third of the EV users polled said DC fast charging stations were a concern. A similar percentage stated the lack of charging locations was an issue. More than 25 percent of those polled complained of slow charging speed. The complaint numbers dropped significantly for Tesla drivers and Tesla’s Supercharger Network.
Another study, published by J.D. Power, found that 20% of respondents showed up at a public station and did not charge up; of those, 72% said the station was out of service.
As California invests billions in new charging stations, the existing ones need repairs and maintenance.
