Charging infrastructure has been the bane of many EV owners, but a recent study put a number on how bad things really are. A study of San Francisco Bay area DC Fast Chargers revealed that around 23 percent aren’t functional.
This 23 percent figure is at odds with manufacturer claims. David Rempel, a professor at UC Berkely and an author of the study says that many manufacturers say that DC fast chargers have 95 to 98 percent uptime, or 3 to 5 percent non-functionality. Yikes.
The study was conducted between February 12 and March 7, all in the Bay Area. A charger was deemed “functional” if it could be connected to and charge for at least two minutes, or was already occupied by a charging EV. The study surveyed 657 chargers in 181 public locations. Around 73 percent were deemed functional, and 23 percent were nonfunctional. The remaining 5 percent had a station design fault where the plug couldn’t reach the vehicle.
All this information comes hot on the heels of the deadline for the US Government’s $5 Billion EV infrastructure plan. Automotive News reports that the federal government will soon establish guidelines and minimum standards for EV chargers. At the very least, each state has until August 1 to submit its EV infrastructure plan for review, then funds will begin to be doled out by September 30.
David Rempel insists that poor EV infrastructure will keep people from buying EVs. Commonly studies cite charger reliability as a top hindrance to EV adoption. Still, knowing is half the battle. Understanding that many chargers are broken can go a long way to ensuring that stations stay reliable in the future.
Become an AutoGuide insider. Get the latest from the automotive world first by subscribing to our newsletter here.
The post EV Fast Chargers Are A Lot Less Reliable Than Reported appeared first on AutoGuide.com.