The survey captured data from 500 individuals across North America including 96% from the United States and 4% from Canada. Responses were gleaned from 250 fleet, 125 workplace, and 125 multi-unit property electrification leads.
Electrification makes economic sense—beyond sustainability
The report states it's a given that EV charging reduces carbon emissions and improves air quality, thus helping companies advance their ESG goals. While respondents cited becoming more sustainable as the most prominent objective achieved across all segments; enabling satisfied drivers, lowering fuel costs, and providing an amenity that supports productivity also ranked high.
Network reliability needs improvement
One of the most crucial factors to consider when selecting an EV charging solution is a reliable network. Eighty-six percent of respondents reported severe to minor network connectivity issues with their primary vendor, occurring anywhere from 1–3 times per week to 1–3 times per year. Multi-unit properties experience the least amount of interruptions overall, while fleets and workplaces encounter the most frequent and severe charging disruptions.
Network recovery times could be faster
In case of technical difficulties, 48% of survey respondents reported that it takes 4 to 24 hours to recover their EV charging solution. Fifteen percent reported a 25 to 48-hour wait time, while 5% had outstanding issues for more than 48 hours. Per segment, fleets have the fastest recovery time, while workplaces experience the longest outages.
EverCharge leads in charging network reliability and customer service
When it comes to network reliability, not all vendors are created equal. Survey respondents with EverCharge as their primary vendor experienced the least amount of network connectivity problems, with 23% experiencing no issues at all. Sixty-three percent reported minor issues and 11% cited moderate issues.
When technical difficulties arise, 40% of EverCharge respondents stated that their issues were resolved within 4 hours. An additional 40% of respondents reported a 4 to 24-hour recovery time, with just 9% reporting outages for 25 to 48 hours. In addition, EverCharge was the only vendor that did not have any unaddressed issues for more than 48 hours.
Detailed findings on the state of EV charging networks across fleets, workplaces and multi-unit properties
01 The benefits of electrification extend beyond sustainability
Seventy-three percent of respondents shared that becoming more sustainable was the top goal achieved with electrification. Fifty-seven percent enabled satisfied drivers, 55% provided an amenity that drives productivity, and 52% reported lowering fuel costs.
The top 3 goals achieved for fleets were becoming more sustainable at 77%, lowering fuel costs at 67%, and meeting regulations at 51%—the latter being a rather fleet-specific outcome.
Seventy-six percent of workplace respondents became more sustainable, 71% enabled satisfied drivers, and 66% provided an amenity that drives productivity. As expected, these employee-related outcomes help improve the worker experience.
Sixty-one percent of multi-unit property respondents said that they became more sustainable, 60% believed that they enabled satisfied drivers, and 56% shared that they provided an amenity that drives productivity.
02 Ease of use is the most important factor in EV charging solutions, followed by uptime and support
Ninety-five percent of all survey respondents rated ease of use somewhat or very important. Similarly, 91% of respondents stated that uptime is somewhat or very important, closely followed by support at 89%. Analytics ranked lower overall at 70%.
However, there were a few notable differences per sector. Ninety-three percent of fleet respondents prioritized uptime, with 39% quantifying it as very important. While the order of priorities holds true for fleets, 77% of respondents ranked analytics higher in importance as compared to the other segments.
Comparatively, 94% of workplaces rated support as the most important factor when evaluating EV charging solutions, with 52% reporting it as highly important. Uptime came in second, with 49% of respondents viewing it as a very important criterion.
Ninety-four percent of multi-unit properties valued ease of use the most, followed by uptime at 88% and support at 83%.
03 Convenience and flexibility are important when starting a charge
Mobile application is the most prevalent way to begin a charging session at 37% as many vendors require users to download their mobile app. However, the use of other methods that simplified the charging experience or addressed specific use cases was also significant. Twenty-five percent of respondents reported using Plug and Charge, 18% tapped their access card, and 10% scanned a QR code or used Free Vend to start a charge.
Aside from mobile apps, workplaces had the highest percentages of access card use at 21% and Free Vend use at 14%. Fleets led QR code scans with 12%, while multi-unit properties were more likely than others to Plug and Charge at 31%.
04 Cellular uplinks are the most popular EV charging connection
Cellular uplinks are the most popular connection for EV charging solutions with 54%, followed by fiber with 51%. Only 12% of respondents reported a coax connection.
Fleet respondents have a near-even split of fiber and cellular connections, at 56% and 55%. Only 13% report coax connections. Similarly, 52% of multi-unit properties have fiber connections, while 48% have cellular. The multi-unit property segment also has the highest percentage of coax connections amongst the industry sectors, with 15%. On the other hand, workplaces have decidedly cellular connections at 58%, with 38% fiber and 6% coax connections significantly less popular.
05 When the network connection goes down, “business as usual” stops
Thirty-six percent of respondents experienced network connectivity issues at least once a month, with 3% as frequently as 1-3 times a week. An additional 55% reported network issues 1-3 times a year. Fleets have the highest percentage of frequent issues amongst segments at 1-3 times per week. Multi-unit properties have the least amount of issues overall and reported the lowest number of frequent outages.
When the network connection does go down, users experience a variety of issues.
Fifty-three percent reported new users being unable to charge, 48% stated that existing charging sessions stopped, and 47% shared charging data was lost or inaccessible as the most common issues. Workplaces experienced the most issues with 62% of new users being unable to charge. Fleets reported the most problems with existing charging sessions stopping at 49%, interrupting business functions. Again, multi-unit properties are the least likely to experience any of these issues among the segments.
06 Network reliability needs improvement
Twenty-three percent of survey respondents reported major or moderate issues, while 63% experienced minor issues. Only 13% of respondents experienced no issues at all.
Per segment, fleets experienced the most significant network reliability problems, with 24% of respondents reporting moderate to severe issues. Twenty-one percent reported experiences with moderate issues and 62% with minor issues. Just 12% reported no issues at all.
Eighteen percent of workplace respondents experienced major to moderate issues, the lowest percentage across all segments. Seventy percent of them reported minor issues, and 10% of them had no problems at all.
Multi-unit properties had the next highest volume of network issues, with 25% reporting moderate to major problems with reliability. Twenty-two percent experienced moderate issues, and 57% reported minor issues. Eighteen percent reported no issues.
07 Network recovery times could be faster
In case of technical difficulties, 5% of survey respondents stated that it takes longer than 48 hours on average to recover their EV charging solution. Fifteen percent reported a 25 to 48 hour wait time, while 48% had outstanding issues for 4 to 24 hours. Twenty-seven percent were recovered in under 4 hours. Per segment, fleets had the fastest recovery time, while workplaces experienced the longest outages.
Four percent of fleet respondents waited longer than 48 hours to recover their EV charging solution. Fifteen percent waited 25 to 48 hours, 46% waited 4 to 24 hours, and just 30% waited under 4 hours to begin charging. This is the fastest recovery time per segment.
Conversely, 7% of workplaces reported waiting longer than 48 hours to commence charging—the longest per segment. Sixteen percent waited 25 to 48 hours, 48% for 4 to 24 hours, and 24% for under 4 hours on average.
Four percent of multi-unit properties waited more than 48 hours before their technical issues were resolved. Fourteen percent waited 25 to 48 hours, 51% waited 4 to 24 hours, and 25% waited under 4 hours.
About EverCharge
While many EVSE providers rely on a separate WiFi or cellular connection which is often unreliable, EverCharge uses a unique wireless mesh network, which eliminates the need for costly third-party networking infrastructure. This proprietary network solution removes data connectivity barriers and enables our EVSEs to handle all communication and decisions locally. As a result, they seamlessly communicate with each other — even if the network goes down—maintaining charging, data reporting, and load balancing in real-time for your electric vehicles.
