According to a survey of 40,000 users, the public EV charging experience in Canada and the U.S. remains inconsistent
The driver comments collected by ChargeHub show a slowly improving public EV charging experience.
According to a survey of 40,000 users, the public EV charging experience in Canada and the U.S. remains inconsistent
New data released this month — spanning January 2023 to June 2024 — summarizes the range of user experiences at public electric vehicle charging stations in Canada and the U.S.
EA Spotlight: Charging Experience
Increasing EV adoption in line with Canada’s 2035 goals will only be possible when EV charging is a seamless, stress-free, reliable experience. This ongoing series examines the issues, obstacles and solutions required and charts our progress towards that goal.
The data comes from ChargeHub, a Canadian software company operating the continent’s largest network-independent EV charging platform.
The report sorts electric-vehicle charging experiences into four primary categories:
- Successful;
- Successful, but with reduced charging speeds;
- Charge initiated, but “was painful or ended prematurely”; and
- Unsuccessful.
Overall, the ChargeHub findings show that, on average, 59 per cent of public charging experiences, as recorded through check-ins on the ChargeHub app, were successful. An additional 12 per cent were successful, but with reduced power; four per cent were initiated, but ended prematurely; and 25 per cent were entirely unsuccessful.
Getting a clearer picture
The 2024 results show a slight positive increase in successful charging sessions from the first six months of 2023, when ChargeHub released its initial findings based on 10,000 user comments.
At that time, successful charging experiences were reported to occur 58 per cent of the time and completely unsuccessful charging attempts at 26 per cent.
While, overall, the experiences are improving at public charging stations, some trends are emerging from the data, including the greater likelihood of an unsuccessful or challenging charging attempt in December and January and more positive charging experiences in the spring, summer and early fall.
Canadian results slightly better
Compared to the U.S., Canada’s charging experiences are marginally better with successful charges happening 61 per cent of the time and unsuccessful charges 23 per cent of the time. The middle categories remain unchanged.
ChargeHub intends to continue to publish data reflecting user comment based charging experiences on a quarterly basis.
