How the US can address consumer charging concerns to speed EV adoption
Millions more American drivers need to trade the pump for the plug for the US to play its part in curbing the climate crisis.
The problem? Many consumers have major concerns about how to do so safely, efficiently, and affordably.
Surveys and studies aplenty suggest that the recent lull in EV demand is partly due to car buyers’ hesitancy around all things batteries and charging. Take a recent J.D. Power survey: For the first time since 2021, consumers said they were less likely to consider an EV than they were the previous year—and the top five reasons were “mostly related to charging.”
An S&P Global Mobility analysis pointed the finger at range and charging concerns to help explain the recent surge in hybrid sales. And the US is lagging behind Europe and China in part because it hasn’t been expanding its fast-charging network as quickly, per JATO Dynamics.
Despite all that, EV sales are still growing; they were up more than 50% YoY last year. But the picture hasn’t been rosy for the EV sector lately: Market leader Tesla is facing some of its biggest challenges in years. EV startups are struggling. Legacy automakers are pumping the brakes on electrification. And slowing demand is one of the main culprits.
“If they know that there’s a place to charge, they’re willing to make that leap.”
—K.C. Boyce, Escalent’s VP of automotive and mobility and energy
“If they know that there’s a place to charge, they’re more willing to make that leap,” one industry analyst told Tech Brew.
“It is clear that charging infrastructure must scale more rapidly alongside the consumer and commercial adoption of EVs.”
—Rick Wilmer, CEO at ChargePoint
Pick up the pace
Electrifying transportation is a key piece of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules earlier this year that would have EVs make up as much as 56% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2032. To help support this, the administration is pushing to get at least 500,000 new public chargers installed by 2030—an effort backed by $7.5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including $5 billion to build fast chargers along highways via the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.
Currently, the US has about 200,000 public chargers, with many more expected to come online in the next few years.
But the rollout has been slow. Reuters reported in early June that some members of Congress are scrutinizing the process because only seven NEVI-funded charging stations were up and running at that time. The delays have been attributed, in part, to permitting processes and the way funding is being allocated state-by-state.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told us in March that officials are “impatient to get more chargers in the ground.”
“It is down to each state to deploy those funds according to their customized plans,” he said. “There was a cost to that, which meant that there’s more complexity to the program. And I think that’s affected the timeline.” But he expressed confidence in the funding model and said he expected the pace to pick up soon.
Amelia Kinsinger
Industry stakeholders know that establishing reliable charging infrastructure is a key piece of this puzzle, and the US is in the midst of a major wave of investment that aims to do exactly that.
Consumers are less anxious about battery range than they used to be—but in order for adoption to speed up, they need to know where and how to charge, and they need to have a pleasant experience, K.C. Boyce, Escalent’s VP of automotive and mobility and energy, told Tech Brew.
“If they know that there’s a place to charge,” he said, “they’re more willing to make that leap.”
Meanwhile, charging demand is on the rise. ChargePoint reported a 53% increase in annual charging sessions last year. The charging network operator saw a 109% YoY leap in charging sessions at fueling and convenience locations across North America, compared to a 47% increase in active ports.
“It is clear,” CEO Rick Wilmer said in a press release announcing the stats, “that charging infrastructure must scale more rapidly alongside the consumer and commercial adoption of EVs.”
Build it
In the US, most EV charging is done at home, but experts say that public infrastructure is crucial for adoption.
“Americans who live close to public chargers view EVs more positively than those who are farther away,” according to a recent Pew Research analysis.
Pew found that six in 10 Americans live within two miles of a public charging station—and those who live close to one are more likely to consider an EV for their next vehicle.
While public charging remains most accessible to city dwellers, 95% of Americans have at least one public charging station in their county, according to Pew. The number of chargers across the US has more than doubled since 2020; it’s grown 29% since tax credits incentivizing charger construction went into effect, per Pew.
Stephanie Coco, a partner at Vinson & Elkins who specializes in energy transactions and project development, said that her clients in the EV charging space aren’t counting on federal funding when they’re assembling deals; market demand is driving decisions.
“That’s the biggest consideration on people’s minds is: How do we build out the network in such a way that drivers will feel comfortable and want to buy electric cars,” she said, “and not have the worries associated with it, while still having a viable commercial case?”
That can be tough for privately funded projects, she said, because developers are often trying to secure financing without any contracted revenue.
Although some carmakers have gotten into the charging game, Coco suspects they won’t want to be in the business long-term given its notoriously low margins. That could help explain a recent shock to the sector: Tesla laying off its entire charging team.
The Tesla of it all
Tesla operates around 25,000 Superchargers across the country, and the US auto industry has recently coalesced around Tesla’s charging standard.
So it came as a shock to many when the automaker disbanded its 500-person Supercharger team in the spring. Tesla has since rehired some of those workers and vowed to invest another $500 million in expanding the network this year, but experts have said it will nonetheless put pressure on other charging projects.
“Fairly universally, people look at Superchargers as being the most available, the most convenient, and the fastest out there. Whether or not that’s true, that’s people’s perceptions,” Boyce said. “It’s those perceptions that are influencing their decisions to buy or not buy an EV when they go to make their next vehicle purchase.”
Consumer concerns about charging are changing, he noted: They’re generally less worried about range and more focused on the charging experience itself. They want plugging in to be an efficient proposition.
“Given that shift,” he said, “that puts a lot more importance on charging and the infrastructure around charging.”
Follow Europe's lead
To get this right, the US may look to places with more developed EV markets.
Drew Meehan, senior product manager for EVs for location tech company TomTom, thinks the US could learn from Europe’s charging strategies—standardizing various aspects of the plug-in process, for one, but also investing heavily in Level 2 chargers, which use 240-volt outlets and can charge EVs in hours. (Comparatively, a DC fast charger like a Supercharger can top up a battery to 80% charge in as little as 15 minutes, per KBB.)
“In the Netherlands, where EV uptake is so high, it’s the slow chargers that make that possible,” Meehan said, “because you don’t have to have a home charger in order to have a similar or a reliable EV experience.” Meehan says he charges his car using a city-installed charger on his street, thanks to a program in Amsterdam.
“In the US,” he added, “you see that people with home chargers don’t have a big problem. But trying to get into that mass adoption requires a slight difference. A lot of people who will be adopting, they’re in apartments or they’re in neighborhoods without dedicated parking…
They’re forced into fast charging…That means that fast chargers become very busy.”
However, Escalent research from last year on how multifamily housing residents fare came as a surprise, according to Boyce. Basically, those drivers are charging while they’re out and about, and it’s working out OK.
“The public infrastructure investment…feeds two birds with one scone,” Boyce said. “It gives prospective buyers that live in any kind of housing confidence that they’ll be able to get a charge where and when they need it. But it also helps those people who live in multifamily [housing] feel comfortable that they can make an EV work in their lives.”
“I think it’s undervalued in the US right now that the slow-charging infrastructure is possibly even more important than the fast-charging infastructure.”
—Drew Meehan, senior product manager for EVs for TomTom
Even the slowest type of charging, Level 1, has some proponents who point to the less expensive and quicker installation process, and see them filling a gap for apartment dwellers.
When Meehan travels across Europe, he puts a bit more planning into where he charges—but increasingly, charging infrastructure is so plentiful at places like rest stops that he doesn’t have to think too far ahead.
“I think it’s undervalued in the US right now,” he said, “that the slow-charging infrastructure is possibly even more important than the fast-charging infrastructure.”
Hooman Shahidi, CEO and co-founder of EV charging platform company EVPassport, echoed this: “People think that in order for us to get to critical scale and critical adoption, it has to be these super-fast chargers. It’s not. It’s going to be Level 2 charging stations.”
Bonus points
Still, in the US, most EV charging will happen at home. But many people are in the dark on some of the benefits—like bidirectional charging.
Vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging allows drivers to use their EVs as a backup power source. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) allows consumers to sell power back to the grid. But a February Escalent report found that 42% of consumers had never heard of V2H. Over half said they’d never heard of V2G.
The Ford F-150 Lightning, for example, has a 131-kWh battery that can power a home for days. General Motors, too, has been promoting its vehicle-based home energy system, and many other automakers offer bidirectional charging.
“What hasn’t really been ironed out is, How do we convey these programs to consumers in a way that is compelling to them?” Boyce said. “We still have a long way to go to educate consumers.”
Next year, home energy management company Emporia Energy plans to introduce a bidirectional charger. CEO Shawn McLaughlin acknowledged that there’s a “steep learning curve,” but ultimately thinks consumers will be sold once they understand the perks.
“The early adopters of this technology are doing this for grid resilience. They’re living in places like…the Gulf Coast where hurricanes can knock out power for several days, and they really want that emergency backup,” he said. “We think the actual biggest advantage of bidirectional charging is energy efficiency and savings. I really don’t believe consumers understand that concept at all.”
Take an EV owner whose utility company has time-of-day rates where power is more expensive during “peak” times. This person, McLaughlin said, could power their home off their vehicle during peak hours and charge their vehicle overnight when the rates are lower. He estimated that consumers could save between 40% and 50% on energy this way.
Ultimately, to speed up the electric transition, he thinks that automakers need to deliver the types of vehicles consumers want; the US needs to build more fast chargers so drivers aren’t nervous about running out of juice; and there needs to be more education about home charging.
“I really think it’s not one thing,” McLaughlin said, “it’s a handful of different things that are gonna get the majority of consumers really comfortable.”
By Jordyn Grzelewski
June 24, 2024