Tesla Inc.’s Level 2 home charging station received the highest satisfaction score of any electric vehicle charger for the second year in a row according to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Home Charging Study released Thursday.
The annual study, introduced last year, looked at EV owners’ satisfaction with their chargers based on eight factors: fairness of retail price, cord length, size of charger, ease of winding/storing cable, cost of charging, charging speed, ease of use and reliability.
Tesla scored a satisfaction score of 797, 47 points above the mounted Level 2 charger average. ClipperCreek placed second with 758 points.
Tesla outperformed every charger in seven out of the eight factors, only falling behind in the fairness of the retail price, Senior Director of Global Automotive at J.D. Power Brent Gruber told Automotive News.
“It may not be the cheapest, but it is the best performing,” he said.
The study surveyed more than 8,000 participants and compared satisfaction levels among Level 1 portable chargers, Level 2 portable chargers and Level 2 permanently mounted at-home charging stations, with total scores of 1,000 points possible.
Level 1 chargers use 120-volt AC power and can add 4 to 5 miles of range per hour, while Level 2 chargers use 240-volt AC power and add 20 to 30 miles of range per hour.
Overall, J.D. Power found there was a 188-point gap between the portable Level 1 chargers and the mounted Level 2 chargers in the study.
Level 1 portable chargers saw a 10-point decline from last year, while portable Level 2 chargers improved 11 points in satisfaction.
Gruber said that he hopes people’s main takeaway from this study is to upgrade to a Level 2 charger.
“A lot of these manufacturers are making really great Level 2 chargers, and we need to make sure people are taking advantage of that,” he said.
There are a lot of incentives to change, such as those being offered by local utilities, Gruber said.
However, the study found that only 40 percent of Level 1 home charging users and 52 percent of Level 2 charging users are aware of these programs.
There are hindrances to upgrading as well. In surveying people who upgraded to a Level 2 charger, the study found that 75 percent needed to change at least one component in their homes. This includes changing wiring, outlets and electrical panels.
Location had a factor in charger satisfaction as well, as different regions saw a range of satisfaction mostly resulting from the cost of charging. The least satisfied was the New England region, where on average EV owners are 162 points less satisfied than drivers in the Mountain region.
One way to increase driver satisfaction is to use preconditioning in a vehicle, which warms or cools the vehicle while it is charging. Looking at owners of permanently mounted Level 2 chargers, the average satisfaction score changes 41 points depending on whether the driver frequently preconditions the vehicle.
