Reliability of Open Public Electric Vehicle Direct Current Fast Chargers

Objective: The aim was to systematically evaluate the usability of all public electric vehicles (EV) direct current fast chargers (DCFC) in the San Francisco region. Background: To achieve a rapid transition to EVs, a highly reliable and easy to use charging infrastructure is critical to building confidence among consumers. Methods: The functionality and usability of all 182 open, public DCFC charging stations with CCS connectors (combined charging system) in the 9 counties of the Bay Area were tested (655 electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) ports). An EVSE was classified as functional if it charged an EV for 2 minutes. Results: Overall, 73.3% of the 655 EVSEs were functional. The causes of the nonfunctioning EVSEs (23.5%) were blank or unresponsive screens or error messages; payment system failures; charge initiation failures; network failures; or broken connectors. In addition, the cable was too short to reach the EV inlet for 3.2% of the EVSEs. A random sampling of 10% of the EVSEs, approximately 8 days after the first evaluation, found no overall change in functionality. Conclusions: The level of functionality found with field testing conflicts with the 95-98% uptime reported by the EV service providers (EVSPs) who operate the EV charging stations. There is a need for precise and verifiable definitions of uptime, downtime, and excluded time, as applied to public EV chargers. Application: The level of failure of the existing public EV DCFC charge infrastructure highlights the importance of improving the system design and maintenance to improve adoption of EVs.