Aachen, 2020/12/10 – We have adapted our testing methodology for charging infrastructure to the US market and developed the new 2020 EV Charging Infrastructure Best-in-Test award with our partner ChargedEV. Together, we wanted to find out how the various public fast charging networks in the US compare in terms of reliability, convenience, coverage and price.
The winner of the 2020 EV Charging Infrastructure Best-in-Test award is Electrify America with a score of 691 of 1,000 points. EVgo ranked second, followed by ChargePoint, EV Connect and Greenlots.
Electric vehicles become more and more popular and are a good alternative to fossil-fuel vehicles. However, for electric vehicles to replace fossil-fuel vehicles in the future they need to be able to make long trips and DC fast charging has to be reliable, convenient and affordable. The charging experience is not always great and leaves much to be desired. It is not always clear how to begin a charging session, how expensive it will be and if stations are even available.
Our first comparative study was conducted in September 2020 in California where our team tested three locations for each of five different charging network operators: Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, EV Connect and Greenlots.
The following benchmark categories were used to compare the charging infrastructure:
- Web site
- App operation
- App functionality
- Price transparency and payment
- Charging station environment
- Charging station functionality
- Services and hotlines
- Payment
Hakan Ekmen, CEO Telecommunication umlaut, says: “For the acceptance of e-mobility, a reliable charging infrastructure with a comprehensive coverage of charging stations is an indispensable requirement. For a technology which is still emerging, the results are all in all pleasing. But it shows there is still room for improvement. This is also true for the providers which have earned a good grade in our assessment.”
Adding something on top, we will publish very soon another umlaut benchmark measuring the performance of connected services in lead US vehicles from the users’ perspective. Stay tuned.
Please find the full ChargedEV report and interview with Hakan Ekmen here.
