Electrification America and Tesla Superchargers earn top scores in 2021 EV charging infrastructure benchmark
If electric vehicles are to replace fossil-burners, drivers need reliable fast charging to enable long road trips. For a few years, Tesla’s proprietary Supercharger network was the only game on the highway, but other companies have joined the market, and public DC fast charging stations are being rolled out at impressive speeds across the US and Europe.
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Above: A Tesla charging at an Electrify America location in Florida (Source: PlugShare)
However, there is still a long way to go in terms of uptime and user-friendliness. Independent testing is essential to helping the charging industry focus its efforts on improving the public fast charging experience, and that’s where global engineering firm Umlaut comes in.
umlaut, part of Accenture, has been performing independent benchmarks from a user perspective across a variety of industries for over 20 years. Last year, umlaut adapted its testing expertise and methodology to the US EV charging market and collaborated with charged To publish its 2020 USA EV Charging Infrastructure Benchmarks. Now, a year later, Umlaut has conducted a second US study, this time in the Northeast.
For its 2021 EV Charging Infrastructure Benchmark Report, Umlot conducted real-world tests of the seven largest fast charging networks—Electrify America, ChargePoint, EVGo, Greenlots, EV Connect, Blink and Tesla—and each of them using multiple criteria. rated. umlaut looked at interoperability, pricing, transparency, functionality and availability, among other elements. How fast and how simple is the charging process? How convenient are the charging locations? Is the charging power delivered the same as advertised?
Umlot’s testers drove 2,100 miles through seven states over six days during September 2021 to find and test the top sites from each network. They used Ford Mach-E and Tesla Model 3 as test vehicles, and conducted about 150 tests at 28 stations. Four stations from each of the seven networks in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania).
To rank the different networks, umlaut divided its analysis into two parts: the digital platform (website and app) of the charging network; and charging location experience. The company developed a comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to compare the most important aspects of charging between different networks.
Above: An inside look at the findings (Source: Accused)
As you can imagine, all networks had their advantages and disadvantages, and all were inferior in some indicators. None earned perfect scores in either sub-category (though Tesla came pretty close in access and payments metrics). ChargePoint was strong in the app functionality and charging location sub-categories. Greenlots got good marks for app functionality and price transparency.
Tesla won by a huge margin in the Charging Location Experience category. Umlaut found the Superchargers’ location and their immediate environment better, and Tesla’s strong technical performance took top marks, too. One of Tesla’s biggest assets is its seamless access and payment system. To charge the Tesla, you don’t need to mess with an app or an RFID card—you just plug it in and start charging. There is now an open-source platform that duplicates this functionality, called Plug and Charge, but at the moment Electrification America is the only major network that supports it.
Electrification America’s support for Plug and Charge earned it a lot of points from umlaut’s testers, as did its app’s strong functionality. The EA took the top ranking in the digital platform category, beating Chargepoint and Greenlots. This, combined with its second-place ranking in the Charging Location Experience category, propelled Electrify America to the top overall score in this year’s benchmark: 702. Tesla was in second place with 649 overall.
charged And Umlaut expected that giving Tesla anything less than a top ranking would be controversial, and they were right. After the rankings were published, an online howl was heard from Tesla fans. “Tesla is the greatest! How dare anyone do otherwise?”
Most howlers probably didn’t read the article that explained Umlaut’s ranking system in detail. While Tesla won easily in the charging location experience area, it did poorly in the digital platform area due to limited functionality of its Web site and app.
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Above: A Model 3 charging at a Tesla Supercharger location (Source: Charged)
As charged And Umlaut acknowledged, it’s somewhat a case of comparing apples to oranges. Tesla’s app may not be as full-featured as other networks, but it isn’t required, as most of the functionality needed to find and use Superchargers is included in the vehicle’s infotainment system. Simply put, Tesla drivers rarely have to use an app or website for charging, and that’s a good thing.
umlaut decided to compare all networks on an equal basis, and as a result, some might consider this unfair. However, before you break out the torch and pitchfork, consider this: Tesla is in the process of opening up the Supercharger network to drivers of other EVs, and for the time being, these drivers (Europeans, as of now) are allowed to use the Tesla app. Will happen. To start over and pay for supercharging. To provide the best possible user experience, Tesla may need to strengthen its app and Web site. That’s exactly what Umlaut’s benchmark is designed to do: to provide network operators with real-world, user-oriented data about the weak links in their systems.
“We had a lot of internal discussions about including Tesla Superchargers in this year’s benchmarks,” said Umlaut’s Christian Sassbauer, “because we really want to build a test system that will capture the right metrics and help the EV industry.” Will provide the most useful information. Frankly, if you asked me before I tested, I think I would have predicted Tesla Superchargers would lead in the total numbers because it is well known that they are very good at many aspects of fast charging They work. And in fact, our test results show it quite clearly—Superchargers excel in a number of important areas. Testing Supercharger stations is actually a little boring because you just plug them in and they’re reliable. work.”
At the end of the day, who “wins” in the rankings is not important. Drivers don’t choose fast charging networks like grocery stores or plumbers. When you’re on the road, you’re usually going to be conserving charging stations that are convenient for where you need to go. Charging stations are not so common right now that drivers have the luxury of choosing one network over another based on Umlot’s ranking.
No, the real point of this evaluation is to identify the areas in which particular networks are doing well, and the areas in which they need to be improved. Like any new industry, there is a lot of room for improvement. It’s clear that some of the other networks have a lot to learn from Tesla in terms of making their charging locations and authentication/payment systems easier to use. On the other hand, as Tesla makes its network available to drivers of other EVs, it needs to bring the functionality of its app to the level of current in-car systems.
Here’s another thought: Could Tesla be working with other automakers to add supercharging functionality to their models’ infotainment systems? Or better yet, can automakers and the charging network get together to make it possible for every network’s app to work on every EV’s infotainment system, including both Plug and Charge and Tesla SuperCharging? Only once we have a system like this will charging really be as convenient as gasping.
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Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Charged
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Electrify America, Tesla, Tesla News, Tesla Superchargers, TSLA
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