EV Charging Stations

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss electric vehicle (EV) charging stations … and what we can learn about how the industry does well (and not well) when it comes to reliability.

Key Points

Join Chris and Fred as they discuss the reliability of EV charging stations … and, more specifically, how the industry MEASURES their reliability. Because there is a huge difference between what is measured and what customers think!

Topics include:

• Getting your metrics right is (beyond) important. If you are furiously measuring the wrong thing, you almost certainly have furious customers.
• … and EV charging stations? The owners of the various fleets of charging stations worldwide routinely report an uptime of more than 99 %. This is great!
• … and what is wrong? Only about 71% of charging attempts are successful. This is what customers care about. This means that around 28% of all EV charging stations that a customer drives up to expecting to be charged simply don’t work. And this is really bad.
• Why? It doesn’t take long for EV charging stations to become obsolete. It comes down to the fact that operators aren’t conducting the hardware and software preventive maintenance they should. A hardware issue is addressed with a temporary software or firmware patch. A software issue that requires patches to be delivered manually to each station? A hardware band-aid solution might be cheaper. And with EVs changing in terms of form, function, and charging capability, what was standard last year is old news this year. And perhaps the biggest issue … there are NO STANDARDS that describe how car manufacturers and EV charging station operators should design their systems to ensure they can interact with each other for the long term.
• So why is this not being addressed? Let’s go back to the metrics. If everyone in an industry walks around genuinely thinking that their products ‘work’ more than 99 % of the time, even thought customers experience a figure much closer to 71 % … nothing changes!

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.

Show Notes