New EV owner here. We charge at home so I don’t need to use them, but stores nearby have chargers. I tried them to see how they work. They are often broken.
One store has a Volta charger (free!). It worked great the first time; the next time I went it was broken.
Walmart has an Electrify America fast charger. The first time I went, 1 of 3 was not working. The next time I went, 1 of 3 was not working, but it was a different one.
Was I unlucky, or are these charging networks unreliable? Has it been getting better or worse over time?
When I had an electric car my charger broke after two years
A literal answer to the title question. I like it. What charger did you have and was it covered under warranty?
I had the 110v wall charger for a Chevy Volt that came with the car. To be fair, I bought the car certified pre-owned, so I guess it was about 5 years old when it broke. I left it outside in inclement weather 24/7. I’m not sure if it was covered under warranty. What broke were the connections inside of the plug handle. I took it apart and soldered it back together. That lasted another six months, and then it broke again. I traded the car in after that, so I never tried to file a warranty claim or anything, but I don’t think it was covered. I didn’t trade the car in because of the charger though. I just happened to find the exact used truck I wanted, in the exact color I wanted, right about when the charger broke, so it worked out.
Edit: I just wanted to add that I loved that car! It was a great car. Literally the only thing I didn’t like about it is that there was no knob to change the AC temp. You had to hold your finger on the touch button and wait like 30 seconds while it slowly adjusted. Everything else about the car was great. One of my favorite features was the little button on the end of the blinker indicator that gave 3 quick polite little horn beeps. I used that all the time to alert people that they were in my way, where a full-fledged horn honk would seem rude.
I’m coming up on 2 years of owning an EV, I have charged at two public chargers in that time.
Unless you’re actively road tripping, or don’t have a home charger, the state of the charger network doesn’t really matter.
People don’t understand this at all!!
They balk at the range but when I ask how often they drive a full tank in a day they kind of give a blank star
Don’t get an EV if you can’t home charge. Don’t get an EV if you drive 400 miles a day. Don’t get an EV if you take cross country road trips 5x a year.
Other than those scenarios, you’re going to come out ahead.
Don’t get an EV if you take cross country road trips 5x a year.
I’m an EV owner that takes at least that many 5000+ mile road trips a year with very very little issues. I’ve never once been stranded due to charging problems. I also however used my brain and bought the right car for the job, and right now that is a Tesla. Hopefully in a couple years once NACS becomes more mainstream I can move to another option.
It’s absolutely doable, however, some (most? IDK) people aren’t down for making so many 30-60 minute stops.
I’ve done it in mine as well because I don’t mind… but it’s definitely not for everyone.
Aging Wheels did a nice bit on chargers. Even the ones which are not fully broken may well not charge at the rate they’re supposed to.
I think my experience is skewed by not having a dcfc capable car. I charge exclusively j1772. And use plugshare to find the chargers. In 5 years of ownership I’ve charged not at home probably 150 times. Of those times I would say I couldn’t get the charger to work maybe 20 times. And of those 20 probably half didn’t have any other option at the same location that I was able to get working.
Again this is skewed by filtering through plug share and not even attempting locations that have comments claiming they’re broken.
