The State of EV Charging & EV Charging Access — CleanTechnica Report

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Below is a portion of our newest report, The State & Promise of EV Charging Infrastructure: North America & Europe. This article explores the state of EV charging infrastructure, EV charging access, and EV reliability in the United States and Europe. Enjoy!

What’s the State of EV Charging Stations in your City?

There are lots of great apps and websites dedicated to making EV charging easier. We didn’t specify which apps respondents used, but there is clearly a need for them, as nearly 70% of US respondents use apps regularly to find charging stations. This question was not asked of European respondents.

We also asked about the matter of finding a charging station. We asked two key questions about this to dig into whether EV drivers had difficulty finding stations and the condition of the stations they do find/use.

Luckily, in both survey populations, EV charging stations are easily found by drivers, with a slightly higher percentage in the US saying they are easy to find. It is interesting to note, however, that the responses varied greatly between our organic and paid outreach:

+ In the organic* outreach, 70% of our US readers and 74% in Europe said chargers were easy to find.

+ In the paid outreach, this dropped significantly: only 30% in the US and 27% in Europe rated them as easy to find.

+ In both populations of paid outreach, 42% of respondents said they sometimes have a hard time finding charging stations. This seems like a big gap in the survey data, and raises many questions about the availability and location of sufficient EV charging infrastructure.

+ Interestingly, in the followup questions about reliability and accessibility of stations, the majority of readers had good experiences, most often finding the stations accessible (not blocked) and usually working well.

(*Organic outreach meant surveys conducted on CleanTechnica directly, not via a third party that we paid to conduct surveys for us.)

EV Charging Access (US Only)

We can see from the data that most EV drivers have access to home charging. However, with the large percentage of drivers who do access public charging, there is always more to learn about what would make it awesome and easy for drivers to charge while on the go — whether it’s across town or across their country.

Most respondents agree that EV charging should be a free amenity. One of our partners for this report, Volta, offers free public charging via a unique model that offers advertising on the charging stations, and there are other options for free charging as well.

Should charging be provided by workplaces/offices? By the city/country/state government? Most drivers would be willing to use an app or some type of check-in process to access free charging, and drivers would be amenable to providing basic personal information (name, demographic info, general location) for free charging.

How Does EV Charging Infrastructure Affect your Shopping Habits (US Only)

Many free public charging stations are offered as an amenity to drivers while shopping. We wanted to know if and how this would change shoppers’ behavior, and the results were quite conclusive. Most respondents would be willing to try a new grocery store or shopping center if EV charging was provided for free. Furthermore, most respondents said they would spend more time shopping, which would likely increase their spending overall, for both grocery stores and shopping centers.

 

For more insights into EV charging patterns in the US and Europe, check out the full report.

 


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Andrea Bertoli

I'm a marketing and sales professional focused on mission-driven businesses. I'm a journalist, green investor, wellness educator, surfer, and yogi. Find delicious food and wellness stuff on my Instagram @VibrantWellness.

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