Plug In America’s 2023 EV Driver Survey: Love the vehicles, but not the charging stations
While electric vehicle (EV) consumers say updates are needed for public fast-charging infrastructure, the vast majority of them are still likely to buy an EV as their next vehicle, according to a new survey released Wednesday by the nonprofit Plug In America, which represents EV drivers nationwide.
“We are focused on accelerating the use of electric vehicles around the United States,” Joel Levin, executive director for Plug In America, said Wednesday during the organization’s webinar to discuss the release of its findings from the 2023 EV Driver Survey. “We see the increased frustration with fast charging as an opportunity for companies to stand out in this dynamic landscape.”
The capital from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021, as well as the increased competition in the private sphere, Levin said, leads Plug In America to “expect that those investments and minimum standard requirements will improve the quality and reliability of public charging over the next five years.”
According to the recent results from the group’s national annual survey, 90 percent of EV owners are likely or very likely to purchase an EV for their next vehicle, despite many of them being frustrated with fast-charging infrastructure, although the level of frustration varied significantly by charging network, according to Pete O’Connor, an energy and environment specialist with The Cadmus Group, who helped author the EV survey along with Plug In America’s Policy Director Ingrid Malmgren and Communications and Marketing Director Lindsey Perkins.
The Plug In America partners that financially supported the survey were the Edison Electric Institute, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Electrify America, and Xcel Energy.
More than 4,000 responses were culled from EV owners and those considering purchasing EVs from December 2022 through February. Responses were fielded from Plug In America’s email list, as well as responses to social media ads on Meta platforms, O’Connor said during the webinar.
“EV owners continue to recognize that the vehicles provide a public benefit in improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” O’Connor said, noting that this is the single most important motivating factor in EV adoption.
In fact, EVs are becoming more mainstream, moving from early adopters to the early majority stage of the technology adoption curve, according to the survey’s conclusions.
“As they reach a broader market and price parity with internal combustion vehicles, we expect that buyer motivations may shift away from environmental concerns being the leading motivational factor for EV drivers,” the survey says.
Specifically, EV drivers are “generally quite happy” with EVs, with the newer vehicles scoring some notable successes in driver satisfaction, as did pickup trucks — although the latter were a small sample size, said O’Connor.
For instance, a broad range of vehicles were represented by EV drivers who took the survey, with 3,319 EVs being reported. Of those, the top three were Tesla (33 percent), Chevrolet (17 percent), and Nissan and Ford, which tied at 8 percent.
Of those vehicles, 80 percent of the owners acquired new EVs, while 20 percent bought used. There were also 23 respondents who reported having e-bikes, but not 4-wheeled EVs.
The survey results also show that the early adopter profile skews higher-income, older EV owners, although this year, those who intend to buy EVs (a.k.a. intenders) were older than owners in 2022, O’Connor said.
In addition to the high satisfaction that EV owners have with their vehicles, 82 percent of owners were satisfied with finding the information they needed to buy/lease an EV, compared to 83 percent in 2022. “The main gaps were cold-weather performance and real-world range,” said O’Connor.
Another key takeaway, he said, is that just 15 percent of EV owners rated dealership salesperson knowledge as “very high.” Only 37 percent rated as “high” or better, compared to 15 percent and 35 percent, respectively, in last year’s survey.
Not all satisfaction was positive, however.
Satisfaction with public Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) networks slid from 75 percent in 2022 to 54 percent in 2023, O’Connor said, noting that public charging networks are lagging, with 46 percent of those who used public DCFC stations considered broken chargers a “major concern” or “a deal-breaker for using this network.” That’s down from 25 percent in 2022, according to the survey.
“Fast-charging infrastructure needs to improve,” concludes the Plug In America 2023 survey. “Lack of sufficient charging stations is the second most prevalent concern about public fast charging networks, with over half of respondents noting that it was at least a moderate concern and over a quarter deeming it at least a major concern.”
Additionally, insufficient charging stations may deter an EV driver from taking a trip; broken charging stations may leave an EV driver stranded, the survey says.
Plug In America points out that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $7 billion in EV infrastructure investments and one of the requirements of EV charging equipment installed using these funds is that it must meet at least 97 percent uptime.
“While this measure doesn’t necessarily guarantee successful charging, it is a start,” the survey concludes.
O’Connor also noted that the vast majority of EV drivers continue to charge at home; a slightly increased number are able to charge at home even when living in multi-unit dwellings, which is promising, he said, adding that workplace charging continues to be commonly used by those who have access to it.
“The demographics of our respondents implicitly indicate a gap (though a diminishing one) in multi-unit dwelling charging availability. Building codes, grant programs, additional workplace charging, and focused work with multi-unit dwelling properties can help overcome this obstacle,” according to the survey. “We hope to see the $1.25 billion in discretionary funds for community charging authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law focus on addressing this, particularly in low- to moderate-income communities with a high percentage of renters.”
EV drivers said the highest-rated motivating factors for having an EV is because they care about clean air and a livable climate.
“As in prior surveys, environmental protection was by far the most prevalent motivating factor among both owners and intenders with 41 percent of EV drivers rating it as the most important factor, with 20 percent citing cost savings,” O’Connor said. “Among intenders, these values were 39 percent and 32 percent, and a majority of EV drivers say it is either very important or vital that the electricity for their vehicle come from renewable energy.”
Likewise, he said inexpensive home charging and federal EV tax credits are the economic incentives most commonly rated as “very influential” or “critical.”
“Economic incentives can move the needle,” he said.
