Almost a Quarter of All Public EV Chargers in the Bay Area Don't Work, Study Finds

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Almost a Quarter of All Public EV Chargers in the Bay Area Don't Work, Study Finds

The electric vehicle revolution isn't going to happen like this.

By Adam Ismail | 20 minutes ago

Public electric vehicles chargers need to be better than they are, Elon Musk is walking back the Tesla job cuts he announced Friday and Mercedes-Benz has a big recall on its hands. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, June 6, 2022.

1st Gear: Over 650 Charging Stations is a Lot of Charging Stations

Roughly 23 percent of 657 DC fast-charging public EV charging stations around the San Francisco Bay Area were deemed nonfunctional, according to a recent study carried out by University of California, Berkeley researchers. That works out to 151 terminals. From Automotive News:

The study, conducted between Feb. 12 and March 7, examined charging stations in and around San Francisco. The researchers deemed a charging point was functioning if it was able to charge for two minutes, or if a station was occupied by an EV that was being actively charged.

According to the researchers, 73 percent of DC fast charging points were considered functional, while 23 percent were deemed “not functional.” Almost 5 percent were considered to have a “station design failure” because the charging cable could not reach the vehicle’s charging port.

Common problems included failures with the station’s payment system, a failure to begin charging, error messages displayed on screen and blank or unresponsive screens, according to the researchers. ... Rempel said Berkeley’s findings corroborate other recent surveys that showed reliability to be a concern for many DC fast charger users.

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