A new study from Harvard Business School (HBS) finds that electric vehicle (EV) charger failure rates are high and charging infrastructure remains inadequate in some areas.
HBS study We used artificial intelligence to study over 1 million customer reviews of charging stations across North America, Europe and Asia over a 10-year period. discovery EV drivers can expect non-residential charging systems to be out of action about 20 percent of the time, and some of the more rural parts of the U.S. have effectively become “charging deserts.”The survey results are the latest to suggest that the Biden administration's long-term vision for an EV-dominant future is struggling to make progress in its early stages.
“Notably, a detailed look at future gas station networks highlights significant reliability issues, estimating that drivers will be able to successfully charge their cars using non-residential EV equipment only 78 percent of the time,” an article about the study posted on the HBS website states. “The survey demonstrates that dissatisfaction extends beyond 'range anxiety,' a common fear that an EV battery won't hold enough charge to reach its destination.” (Related: Biden Administration classifies Martha's Vineyard and elite areas as “low-income” to push for EV charger subsidies)
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Charger reliability, and consumer perception of it, has proven to be a stubborn obstacle to EV adoption.
“Imagine going to a traditional gas station and finding that the pump is broken two times out of 10.” “Consumers will revolt.”
Additionally, the HBS survey uncovered consumer concerns about inconsistent and non-transparent pricing for charging EVs. HBS described the pricing environment examined in the survey as a “lawless zone,” leaving consumers to guess how much they'll have to pay to charge.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is pushing ahead with an aggressive EV initiative: Federal agencies have issued several stringent regulations that will significantly increase EV makers' sales share over the next decade, and the administration is also pumping billions of dollars into stimulating EV production and adoption.
The White House goal The U.S. has set a goal of having 50% of new car sales be EVs by 2030, and achieving this goal will require a massive expansion of public EV charging stations. Congress gave the government $7.5 billion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 to build public EV chargers, but so far only a handful of stations have been operational under the program.
Administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have defended the program and the progress it has made so far, though Republicans in Congress have expressed skepticism that it is being rolled out as planned.
One factor apparently slowing progress on the $7.5 billion program is the Biden administration's insistence that potential grant recipients ensure their work will promote diversity, equity and inclusion. (Related article: Another way the Biden administration will allocate EV charger subsidies to America's wealthiest areas)
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Currently, most of the U.S. EV charging infrastructure is concentrated in densely populated coastal areas, with rural areas in the Midwest lagging behind. according to To the Department of Energy (DOE).
“Public charging stations are not evenly distributed across the United States, concentrated in population centers and affluent areas, and less so in rural areas and smaller cities,” the HBS article states. “As a result, drivers have a mixed experience, with some areas well-served and others underserved, and some parts of the country becoming 'charging deserts' with no stations at all.”
Specifically, the report said, counties in Washington and Virginia have no public chargers and those that previously had them are now virtually gone. The study also noted that some EV drivers have had issues with internal combustion engine drivers parking in EV charger spaces, making the chargers unavailable.
The survey is the latest in a series of recent papers and studies suggesting the administration's EV policies are struggling to gain traction in their early stages. A recently published McKinsey & Company analysis found that nearly half of U.S. EV owners would prefer to buy an internal combustion engine vehicle when they next buy a car. And an Associated Press poll released in June found that nearly half of respondents said they were unlikely to consider an EV when buying their next car.
“That's not what any company or network would have you believe.” “I couldn't even convince my mom to buy an EV recently,” said the Georgia Tech professor. “Her decision wasn't about price; she said charging just wasn't convenient enough yet, so it wasn't worth learning a whole new way of driving.”
Neither the Department of Transportation nor the Department of Energy immediately responded to requests for comment.
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