A US study in January 2015 of 2,800 drivers of electric cars by PlugInsights Research has found the following:
- 2% of total monthly charging is from paid for public charge stations (Level 2)
- 5% of total monthly charging is from free public charge stations (Level 2)
“I really depend on Public L2 charging” 66% disagree/strongly disagree
“If public L2 stations all suddenly disappeared tomorrow, it would be a crisis for me.” 62% disagree/strongly disagree
“If you drove a 200@mile BEV, how useful would these different forms of public charging be?” 81% fast (rapid for UK readers) very or extremely useful vs 36% public level 2
88% of Tesla Model S drivers knew about the Supercharger network before buying.
• 67% of these drivers said it was either extremely influential or very influential to their purchase decision. Only 5% said it had no impact.
• The corollary: LACK of a well-planned fast charge network REPRESSES long-range BEV sales.
Conclusions for public infrastructure:
…public fast chargers, not public Level 2
…much higher reliability/availability than today’s L2
…“multi charging centers”,not single charger sites.
…a purpose-built, top-down designed network that connects distant points.
…further investment in public Level 2 charging is wasteful.
Public L2 obsolescence may be just around the corner.
…failure to build a robust, top-down planned network could seriously repress PEV category sales.
