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Webinar: Ensuring a Reliable Charging Experience

June 8, 2023

Text version

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office) hosted a webinar on "Ensuring a Reliable Charging Experience." This webinar explained the basics of the charging experience, including the pieces of the ecosystem, factors influencing customer experience, and industry business model variance. The speakers also discussed how to measure reliability, including an overview of the 97% uptime requirement in the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Standards and Requirements.

Panelists:

  • John Smart, Idaho National Laboratory
  • Sarah Hippel, Joint Office.

The webinar covered topics that will be useful for those considering incorporating reliability into contracting mechanisms such as considerations for robust operations and maintenance plans, charger design and installation verification plans, advanced design features, and payment methods. Other topics included key cybersecurity considerations with reliability and reliability related opportunities available in the  Joint Office Ride and Drive Electric funding opportunity. There was additional information regarding the National Charging Experience Consortium (ChargeX Consortium), which seeks to address EV charging reliability challenges by facilitating collaboration across industry.

Key takeaways 

  • The charging experience is affected by the charging station location, design features; amenities; charger and app user interface and functionality; operations and maintenance; product development and manufacturing; and deployment.
  • Charging station operators need access to significant capabilities to ensure reliable operations, and these capabilities need to be coordinated.
  • As the charging industry is still in its early stages, there is a wide range of business models.
  • One end of the spectrum of charging company business models is full vertical integration, where a single company does everything in-house and leases property from a site host or a landlord.
  • In this example, the company operates their charging stations. They provide backend communication, network support, manufacture the chargers, and provide field services. They maintain and repair the chargers and even provide customer support themselves.
  • On the other end is a case where a site host, which could be really any business, decides themselves to become a charging station operator.
  • In this case, they purchase their charger from a vendor. They contract with installers and field service providers. They also contract with the charging network provider and customer support services to run the station.
  • Charge X Consortium will bring together EV charging industry members, national laboratories, consumer advocates, and other stakeholders to measure and significantly improve public charging reliability and usability within 24 months.
  • The goal of the ChargeX Consortium is to ensure that any driver with any EV can charge at any charger the first time, every time.

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