ChargeHub's Unique EV Charging Experience Barometer for North America

The sum of anecdotal evidence from EV drivers and reports of public chargers failing to work properly or delivering inconsistent power pose significant challenges for the EV industry, where widespread adoption hinges on a reliable charging experience. But how can we gain a clearer picture of charging infrastructure reliability and the success rate of EV drivers when the necessary data isn’t shared across the industry?

The gap between customers’ expectations and the industry’s capacity to overcome reliability issues is widening. At the same time, policymakers are pouring substantial funding into infrastructure expansion without a clear understanding of how effectively the deployed capital is benefiting customers. While getting a comprehensive view of the situation is crucial, few studies provide insights into the public charging experience from the EV drivers’ perspective.

In 2023, ChargeHub’s data team began a deeper analysis of our unique user data to assess how the industry is performing on charging reliability and the success rate of EV drivers.  Recognizing the absence of a widely available industry benchmark, we took the initiative to address this gap. As the largest network-independent, community-driven EV charging app—with over 1 million annual users and access to an unparalleled range of data on user experience and real-time infrastructure usage—we launched the EV Charging Experience Barometer.

The Barometer’s methodology involves quarterly analysis of user feedback across  ChargeHub’s platforms (iOS, Android, Web, in-vehicle) in the U.S.  and Canada since January 2023, covering  75+ charging networks. To date, we’ve reviewed over 40,000 user comments on charging attempts, categorizing them into four groups:

This extensive dataset provides a clear view of the EV drivers' sentiments regarding public charging infrastructure—a crucial insight for the industry to gauge charging success trends in North America.

The following chart summarizes the findings on the state of public EV charging user experience and success rate in North America from January 2023 to June 2024.

Key Takeaways from the Analysis:

• The charging experience and success rate remained relatively stable over the study period, with no significant differences between the U.S. and Canada.

• Approximately 30% of reported and categorized charging attempts were challenging (e.g.: requiring a call to customer service to reboot a station) or ended prematurely/unsuccessfully.

• Only 59% of reported and categorized charging attempts were successful without reported issues, supporting existing evidence that it's not always bad, but the charging experience can often fall short. 

• No significant improvements were observed in 2024 compared to 2023.

While the data aligns with other studies,  it doesn’t aim to provide an exact proportion of user experience. For instance, it doesn’t account for potential negative bias (drivers may be more likely to report negative experiences). Nor does it track situations where a successful charge occurred at a location where other ports were down (unless the driver specifically reported it).  However, the data has proven to be a reliable trend indicator over time, with month-over-month category variations never exceeding 4% over the study period, indicating a lack of improvement in seamless charging success & reliability as perceived by drivers. 

As the ChargeHub community continues to grow, so will the volume of feedback, allowing us to release the EV Charging Experience Barometer regularly as an industry benchmark. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the next quarterly release of this data.

As the leading EV Roaming Interoperability Hub in the U.S. & Canada, we collaborate closely with numerous Charge Point Operators (CPO), streamlining station integration across multiple eMobility Service Providers (eMSP) through our Passport Hub solution. As we advance, we aim to integrate more reliability data points into our platform, helping CPO partners benchmark performance and improve the overall reliability & success rate of public charging.

We are also working to make this detailed information—whether from our Hub or external sources—more accessible to our CPO and eMSP partners, supporting their mission to provide seamless charging experiences for all EV drivers. Until a fully automated solution is in place, any of our partners can request custom reports.
 
We also welcome inquiries from organizations beyond our current CPO and eMSP partners, including governments bodies and agencies involved in  funding EV charging infrastructure deployment.