According to new results from survey giant JD Power, electric vehicle owners are much less satisfied with their home charging experience than at the same time last year.
It is thought the reason is satisfaction with the cost of charging, which has fallen by about 30 points from last year’s similar study.
Just as satisfaction with gasoline-powered vehicles fluctuates with price increases at pumps, a substantial increase in residential electricity prices seems to have played a role in EV charging satisfaction.
According to US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average household end-use electricity cost increased from 13.72 cents/kwh in December 2021 to 14.96 cents/kwh in December 2022—an increase of about 9% and is one of the highest year-over-year price increases in decades. The energy surge is especially painful in New England, which already has the most expensive electricity prices in the nation. There, it rose from 22.07 cents to 27.04 cents per kWh in the same period – an increase of nearly 23%.
GM Ultium 2022 Charger Series for home charging
However, even these price increases cannot erase the cost benefits of electric vehicles. Gasoline cars can be six times more expensive to drive per mile against EVs.
The US home electric vehicle charging experience study was conducted from December 2022 to February 2023 and included 13,860 owners of 2017-2023 plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles.
J.D. Power noted growing regional disparity in these results, with the highest drop in satisfaction among those in New England, where the cost of living electricity is among the highest in the nation. The Southeast Central region, which has the lowest average price, is ranked the highest.
EV owners are also less satisfied with their charging speeds, Power commented, following a trend that may be closely related to the growing size of EV battery packs. The survey company also found that those with fixed Level 2 chargers (rear-mounted or wall-mounted) were the most satisfied, while those who relied 2 . level mobile charging connector or level 1 charging is unsurprisingly the least satisfied.
Charge Tesla
In this year’s survey, permanent Level 2 chargers from Tesla is at the top againfollowed by the Grizzl-E, Emporia and ClipperCreek all with above-average performance, while Chevrolet, Ford, Electrify America and JuiceBox had the lowest satisfaction ratings.
Separately, people using charge scheduling are more satisfied—with higher ratings for those using the automaker’s mobile app than the mobile app of the charger.
Many shoppers can potentially relieve the financial pressure they’re feeling, in terms of fee rates, costs, or both. JD Power goes on to note that low awareness of charging and specifically programs that can save money when installing or upgrading chargers.
