One Simple Charging Feature Could Could Boost EV Sales: Study

What’s your biggest issue with owning and driving an electric vehicle? I’m guessing it’s related to public charging, and you’re not alone. Fast chargers are getting better, but there still aren’t enough of them across the country—and they don’t always work.  And nothing is worse than arriving at a station with a nearly empty battery and finding every stall filled.

A new study suggests that giving people that knowledge alone could bring more buyers into the EV world. The National Bureau of Economic Research believes EV sales could rise 8% by 2030 if there was better real-time data for charging locations.

Mind you, that’s an 8% rise solely based on knowing where the functional chargers are, and if they’re being used. It doesn’t take into account improvements in charging speeds, reliability or an expanded network of charging stations.

The study, called Charging Uncertainty: Real-Time Charging Data and Electric Vehicle Adoption, monitored PlugShare for a six-month period from March through August 2024. Specifically, researchers focused on DC fast chargers along six major U.S. highways—I-5, I-10, I-75, I-80, I-90 and I-95—covering 13,538 miles across 40 U.S. states. All charging stations in the study were located within two miles of a highway exit, mirroring what a typical EV driver might explore while traveling. To go even deeper, the study reduced that off-highway distance to just a half-mile in densely populated areas to account for heavier traffic.

Photo by: InsideEVs

What did the study find? Drawing on information from the PlugShare app, it was found that only 33.2% of all charging stations reported real-time data. However, with Tesla and Electrify America excluded from the data set, the real-time reporting goes up to 70.9 percent. These two companies account for a significant number of fast chargers but don’t play well with PlugShare.

Of course, you can get real-time info for both EA and Tesla Supercharger stations but it requires having the specific app for each company. It’s free to find stations and check real-time status, but both apps also offer a premium subscription that provides other benefits. The study points out that accessing multiple apps to find real-time information on chargers is an inconvenience at best. At worst, drivers may not be able to switch between and search through multiple apps while driving. PlugShare is proposed as a convenient, universal solution since it’s free to use and already incorporates numerous charging networks.

So, real-time reporting on chargers could definitely be better. But how does this correlate to more EV sales? Researchers surveyed EV and non-EV owners, asking the same series of questions about EV chargers, locations, and the probability that they’d be able to successfully charge up at various locations. 1,820 completed surveys were received, the majority of which came from non-EV owners.

Based on the answers to those questions, researchers found that prospective EV buyers would be more apt to pull the trigger if they had more information on chargers. After a plethora of equations, the study reached an 8% bump by 2030.

The full study also shows potential impacts on emissions should those 8% buyers step up, but the takeaway is that knowledge is power. If real-time reporting on chargers could be consolidated, it would benefit current EV owners while bringing new owners to the segment.