As electric vehicles explode in popularity, charging infrastructure needs to expand rapidly in coming years

As electric vehicles gain momentum commercially, their rising popularity is putting pressure on local governments to make sure charging infrastructure keeps pace. A new report from J.D. Power found that “remarkable” growth in EV sales has “added stress to an already beleaguered public vehicle charging infrastructure.”

In this regard, while the availability of chargers varies by region, maintenance of existing chargers was found to be a universal challenge throughout the nation. One of five respondents who participated in J.D. Power’s study said they weren’t able to charge their vehicle during a stop, with the primary reason for the station’s interoperability being either a malfunction or out of service.

“Public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike,” said Brent Gruber, executive director of global automotive at J.D. Power in a statement about the findings. “Stations need to be added to areas where there are currently gaps in heavily traveled routes and in high-density areas for people who don’t have access to residential charging, but most importantly, designed with things for users to do while charging—regardless of the use case.”

States and local governments are addressing the need for more charging stations in varied ways. In Washington, D.C., for example, city leaders have proposed legislation that would require developers to include charging ports in renovations or new construction. St. Louis, Mo., likewise, passed a measure requiring businesses to install charging stations when repaving a parking lot, and when expanding or developing a building. Confronting that measure, the Missouri House recently approved a bill that, if passed into law, would take the fiscal burden off businesses and require local governments to foot the bill of all mandated charging stations.

Regardless of legislation, the rise of EVs is inevitable. A report from S&P Global Mobility published last month documents there are more than 140,000 EV charging stations currently deployed across the United States to support about 1.9 million vehicles on the road. Of those, 126,500 are distinguished as level two stations (with level one being the kind that are find at home) and 20,431 are level three DC fast chargers.

While that might seem like a high figure at first glance, the report estimates that number will need to quadruple to about 770,000 by 2025 to sustain the projected explosive growth of electric vehicles (7.8 million in three years).

“The transition to a vehicle market dominated with EVs will take years to fully develop, but it has begun,” said Ian McIlravey, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “With the transition comes a need to evolve the public vehicle charging network, and today’s charging infrastructure is insufficient to support a drastic increase in the number of EVs in operation.”

The states with the highest number of EVs currently in operation and new-vehicle registrations are California, Florida, Texas and New York. 

here also remains lower investment into charging systems outside of major metro markets. Though EV adoption in those areas will continue to be slower, creating a robust infrastructure is important there as well. Currently, 85% of Level 3 chargers are in US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs as defined by the US Census Bureau, and including 384 metro areas); 89% of Level 2 chargers are in these areas. 

“The focus on urban areas follows where electric vehicles are today, but distribution will need to be much wider as vehicles in operation grow, and consumers need to charge along their routes,” McIlravey said.

In J.D. Power’s report, most EV owners expressed relative satisfaction with the ease of charging, and an understanding of the charging grid. Users of level two chargers cited convenience and a lower price as the primary driver for their usage. DC fast chargers are most often used on road trips, when there are few other logical alternatives.

“Everyone knows that the landscape of gas stations is focused on convenience—readily available, fast fueling and quick convenience items,” said Gruber, of J.D. Power. “Although fast charging is seemingly getting faster by the day, to expedite the charging process vehicles will need to accommodate the newest ultra-fast chargers. Currently, only a handful of vehicles can take advantage of the fastest charging speeds. And no matter how fast their vehicle charges, EV owners still indicate they need more options for things to do during each charging session to enhance convenience and fill the down time.”