DC fast charging needs to improve. There’s enough articles on the internet and enough experiences from people who drive EVs to know that it needs to be better. But we also shouldn’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.
Electrify America is working on improving its charging experience. That is all well and good, but I was recently in Phoenix driving the 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 (review coming soon) and stopped at an Electrify America installation to try charging. It required a call to customer support. Ugh.
More work needs to be done.
However, when I recently attended the J.D. Power Auto Summit in Vegas, I learned something interesting regarding this. According to the company’s survey of EV drivers and owners, nearly 82% of them charge almost exclusively at home.
That’s right. A huge percentage of EV owners don’t charge anywhere but the charging station at their house.
That means that while you’ll hear me talk about how fast charging needs to be better, that for road tripping stations need to be in a better location, that in order to tow we’ll need more and faster chargers, that ultimately it doesn’t matter to most EV buyers.
Home charging needs to become better. Apartments and rental properties need to have charging access for residents. That’s what will really spur EV adoption.
Because as it turns out, that’s the type of charging that really matters to actual owners. Let’s make sure we don’t lose focus on that while we’re rallying for something that isn’t as big of a priority for actual drivers.
