EV Charging Metrics Are Positive, Signaling A Consistent Rise In Availability & Reliability – CleanTechnica

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Roadtrips in the US have become much less stressful this summer because there are many more reliable EV chargers available along major highways and in suburban areas. While it still requires planning and strategic charging, an EV on a vacation getaway is no longer a major problem. Strong EV charging metrics in the second quarter are supporting the positive take-away impressions of domestic EV drivers and pointing to an associated upswing in EV sales.

EV charging station availability has contributed to updated International Energy Agency estimates that US sales of battery EVs will soar to 2.5 million in 2025, up from 1.1 million last year.

US EV charging deserts are disappearing, with an increase of 9% charging stations in 3 months, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis of Department of Energy data. There are now nearly 9,000 public, fast charging sites in the US. In the second quarter, Shell debuted 30 new charging stations, Enel opened 11, Pilot Travel Centers revealed 8, and another seven arrived at Flying J rest stops in the US.

It’s informative to look at EV Go’s Q2 2024 revenue report, which reached $66.6 million compared to $50.6 million year-over-year — that’s 32% growth. What was the cause of the revenue surge? Increases in charging network revenues. Network throughput increased to 66 GWh in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 25 GWh in the second quarter of 2023, representing 164% year-over-year growth. The company added over 131,000 new customer accounts during the second quarter of 2024, a 60% year-over-year increase in new accounts. The overall number of customer accounts was more than 1 million at quarter end, an increase of 59% year-over-year. EVgo says demand is being accelerated by people driving their EVs for longer distances than ever before, plus more EV owners are now living in multi-unit developments where charging isn’t yet available.

ChargePoint, another leading provider of networked charging solutions for EVs, now enables drivers access to charge at more than one million places across public, private and roaming ports in North America and Europe. Additionally, more than 10 billion electric miles have been enabled by the ChargePoint network to-date. The network has enabled around 4 billion of those miles in the last year alone, another point of correlating evidence that demand for EV charging continues to scale.

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The Q2 rise in EV charging was spurred significantly by the Biden-Harris administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula program, a $5 billion plan to fill in the gaps on the charging map. Two months ago the Administration opened applications for a historic $1.3 billion funding opportunity for EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure in urban and rural communities and along designated highways, interstates, and major roadways. This is the largest single grant funding opportunity for EV charging in the nation’s history, and it will accelerate public and private investment in clean transportation in the places where people live, work, and play.

At the end of the first quarter, the average US fast charging station was plugged into a car 18% of the time — nearly 5 hours a day, according to Stable Auto, a charging network data utilization analysis company. Stable estimates that a charging station must be pumping electrons around 15% of the time to turn a profit.

And EV charging station installations are merely at their beginning. EV drivers really like fast charging, with its capacity to return the EV charging level to 80% in about 20 minutes. If the trend continues, public fast-charging sites will outnumber gas stations in the US in about 8 years. North American operators are expected to spend a collective $6.1 billion on charging infrastructure this year, nearly double their 2023 investment, according to BloombergNEF estimates. That annual spend is expected to double again by 2030. By the middle of this century, around $774 billion will likely be invested in public networks.

Certainly, the Inflation Reduction Act that the Biden-Harris administration signed into law in August 2022 made EV manufacturers eligible for billions of dollars worth of battery manufacturing tax credits, which helped to assuage inherent EV startup difficulties. Then again, having available EV charging up-and-running is the first of several steps along the path to success for operators. Followup checks for reliability and efficiency are necessary to create a loyal EV charging customer base. There is also the reality that slow EV charging periods reduce profit margins and could send some optimistic and ambitious operators packing.

Final Thoughts about the Current State of EV Charging

BNEF projects that the long-term trajectory for EV sales remains positive, in part because batteries will become even cheaper. The EV charging sector is at an inflection point, they add, with expectations that the electricity required to feed charging stations will increase 30-fold in the next quarter century. By 2044, the millions of EV chargers around the world will consume more electricity than the US did in its entirety last year. Public charging networks will account for more than 40% of that demand, and an array of companies have begun to deploy infrastructure. While China is way ahead, Europe and the US are beginning to install at a greater pace.

The upcoming US Presidential election will have impact the future of domestic EV production. Former President Trump’s attack on EVs in his Republican Party nomination speech affirmed his vow to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one.” He’s been quoted as saying they’re too expensive, can’t be driven far enough on a charge, and will cost auto workers their jobs. Yet his position seems to have been forgotten by his advisors lately, as Trump has eased his previous condemnation of EVs. Now he tells attendees at his campaign rallies that he likes them, especially Teslas, which are manufactured by his fanboy and huge financial contributor, Elon Musk.

EVs are here to stay, so find a charger, right-leaning US drivers. Just listen to Sam Houston, senior vehicles analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who sees the US getting past a turning point so that fueling stations and convenience stores are seeing EV charging as a value proposition.

“It’s a very welcome turn from how they were behaving in the regulatory space even as recently as a couple years ago. You have a few anecdotes that suggest a lack of charging and that gets conflated to charging overall. It’s important to make sure people are aware of how quickly these stations are coming online.”