Electric Vehicle Charger Study ‘Flawed’, Says Electrify America

Electric Vehicle Charger Study ‘Flawed’, Says Electrify America

Filling up an electric vehicle (EV) is not as easy as filling up a gasoline-powered vehicle. But many buyers have taken the leap into ownership anyway and are currently dealing with charging infrastructure that isn't nearly as robust as promised or as robust as the pump gas system.

A University of California, Berkley study of EV chargers in California found that they are unusable more often than advertised. Fast charger companies say that they have over 95 percent uptime. The study showed the number to be around 77 percent.

The study, led by David Rempel from the bioengineering department of Berkley, checked 657 combined charging system (CCS) connectors in the San Francisco area at 181 public charging stations. According to the report, "an electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) station was evaluated as functional if it charged an EV for 2 minutes or was charging an EV at the time the station was evaluated."