Unreliable access to charging stations will continue to be an obstacle to widespread electric vehicle adoption, according to one California researcher.
Quartz reports that in a recent blog post from Andrew Campbell, executive director of the Energy Institute at Haas at the University of California, Berkeley, he highlights how the inaccessibility of EV chargers has damaged consumers’ confidence in switching from a gas-powered vehicle.
It’s just having access to an EV charger, though–it’s finding one that works. In his post, Campbell references a JD Power survey from last year which showed 1 in 5 EV charging attempts failing. Even with upcoming investments in charging infrastructure, consumers will need to see it reliably works before they feel confident about making the switch.
To address this, Campbell suggests making adjustments to federal charging station subsidies that will encourage functional chargers and/or have repercussions for outages.
“The federal government has made a big commitment to making charging more widespread. The Federal Highway Administration and state agencies need to make sure those chargers work,” wrote Campbell.
