How EVCS is Repairing Reliability Concerns

One of the biggest concerns among EV drivers today is the reliability of public chargers. One recent survey from the Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley claims as many as 23% of public chargers in the Bay Area alone are, as Wired sums up, “nonfunctioning at any given time, stymied by broken screens, shoddy credit card or payment systems, network connection failures, or damaged plugs.” And that’s in a locale prioritizing the conversion to electric. Testimony from motorists seems to corroborate these findings. A CEC survey of 1,290 EV drivers found that fully 60% had experienced damaged or inoperable chargers, while almost half needed assistance from customer service. We find this wholly unacceptable and have taken measures to ensure that chargers in the EVCS network rise to the standard of operability our customers expect. Here are a few ways we’re doing that:

Renovating Existing Infrastructure

In the summer of 2020, we purchased the West Coast Electric Highway, a contiguous network of 56 charging stations in Oregon and Washington. Unfortunately, the chargers were outdated and several had fallen into disrepair. By October of 2021, the first phase in our estimated two-year renovation project had begun, complete with the incorporation of new proprietary networking software, updated payment portals, CCS1 connectors and replacement of old Level 2 and Level 3 chargers.

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Utilizing State-of-the-Art Hardware

Our Tritium RT50 chargers are acknowledged by industry experts as among the highest quality available. Their efficiency rating is greater than 90%, with 6000 VAC surge protection, and they maintain peak performance in both extreme heat and subzero temperatures. They’re durable, lightweight and equipped with a patented liquid-cooling technology that allays the effects of humidity, dust and corrosion.

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Remote Operational Testing

We maintain a powerful centralized platform that is connected to every charger in our network. This allows us to routinely run diagnostics checks that ensure optimum operability across every area, from electrical flow to RFID connectivity to the status of charging ports and adapters. If we find an issue, we remotely “reboot” the charger as a first step in our maintenance and repair protocols.

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Expert Technicians

If a reboot fails to solve the issue, we send a specially trained technician to service the equipment. However, some issues might fail to appear on one of our remote tests, which is why we routinely send field techs out to inspect every one of our installations across the West Coast. Working to preemptively address issues means less of a chance our customers get burdened with the hassle of faulty equipment.

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Responsive Customer Service

Despite all our mitigating efforts, we understand problems will still arise. That’s why we maintain a round-the-clock customer support team every day of the year to address charger issues. We can be reached by phone, email or website form, and we respond promptly to issues on social media. Customers who call in will be connected to a live person who is knowledgeable, empathetic and driven to achieve maximum satisfaction.

According to a recent article in Greenbiz, “To accelerate the transition to 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales for new passenger vehicles in the U.S., the emphasis on charging infrastructure must equally focus on deploying more stations and ensuring a reliable driver experience. Otherwise, we risk slowing down EV adoption…” We completely agree. We remain committed to keeping our chargers in top working order and providing customers a simple, reliable and seamless charging experience.

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Installation of the Month (June 2021): Hyatt Place Riverside/Downtown

The ability to travel is something many of us take for granted. Our Interstate Highway System allows us to freely traverse state boundaries – to go wherever we choose whenever we choose – from the snow-capped Colorado Rockies to the soupy Everglade swamplands to the historic lighthouses of coastal New England. However, EV drivers are more acutely aware of their travel limitations because many areas of the country have yet to adopt pro-electric infrastructure policies, often leaving them with few ground-travel options other than ICE vehicles. We knew getting more Americans to embrace the electric revolution would require buy-in from the hospitality industry. As such, much of our focus has gone toward hotels that, by serving as site hosts for charging stations, can help kickstart that ubiquitous access required to convert many EV holdouts.

Wall Street Journal Piece Brings Up Questions… And We Answer

Stephen Wilmot’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Investors Look for an EV Charge,” debates the merits of investing in EV infrastructure, admitting that while chargers likely make for better investments than cars, the sector still holds many potential pitfalls that should be considered before jumping in. While that may be true, many of the examples backing up this assertion cite the business models of the largest EV installers in the country while failing to consider what less visible but faster-growing companies like EVCS are doing to mitigate such risks. Below are a few quotes from the article and our thoughts on them, including how we’re different.

Commentary on EV Industry Profitability Claims

In a recent Driving.ca article titled “EV-Charging Industry is Doing Everything Except Making Money,” author David R. Baker makes a compelling argument that the EV infrastructure sector is a revenue desert, essentially incapable of generating enough cash flow to sustain profitability due to a lack of interest from motorists. “The dilemma boils down to demand,” he states, before adding that “lots of people still driving gasoline-powered cars won’t consider going electric until they see charging stations widely deployed.”

Installation of the Month (May 2021): LADOT Lot 656

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) notes on its website that ICE vehicles are one of the city’s top contributors to air pollution, accounting for 19% of all greenhouse gas emissions, before proclaiming, “We can do better… We’re investing in public transit, testing new technology, and adopting mobility innovations for a cleaner environment and brighter future.” At first, it might just sound like flowery rhetoric, but we can personally attest to that commitment. Starting in 2019, LADOT partnered with us to install DCFCs at 57 city-owned lots, with almost 30% of those installations now completed. This alliance has been integral in promoting our goal of zero-emission mobility in the City of Angels by facilitating greater access to infrastructure.

Addressing Pain Points in Creating EV Infrastructure

A recent GovTech.com article titled “How Biden Plans to Build 500 EV Charging Stations” discusses the President’s goals for creating a nationwide network of 500,000 such installations by 2030. While it does a smart job laying out many of the pain points we face in facilitating EV adoption, the mention of solutions was far less prevalent, and ones that were mentioned seemed speculative or tenuous. However, over the last three years, EVCS has already taken the lead in addressing many of these challenge areas, allowing us to dominate the installation market across the West Coast.