EV Charging Sessions: Up Almost 50 Percent
It’s the charging industry’s biggest weekend – Thanksgiving week. During the busiest travel time of the year, millions of drivers hit American roads, and an increasing number of them are driving electric cars.
In the past, Thanksgiving week has been a time that has really stressed EV public charging infrastructure, leading to line-ups at fast chargers and horror stories about long waits and dysfunctional equipment. But, according to a new study from Paren, a San Francisco-based data aggregator for the charging industry, 2024 was a different story: despite more EVs than ever on our roads, public infrastructure was actually far less stressed than in years past.
Paren analyzed data across public fast charging “travel” stations for Thanksgiving week – Monday through Sunday. The biggest increase (54 percent) in charging sessions was on Black Friday 2024. The overall average year-over-year increase for the week was a whopping 48 percent.
When Are Public EV Chargers Busiest?
Eight of the top 10 days for Level 3, or DC fast charging, sessions, occur during Thanksgiving week, with the Saturday after Thanksgiving showing the most charging sessions of any day in 2024. On that day, there was a nearly 24 percent increase over the year’s average daily charging sessions. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was close behind, with a lift of just over 21 percent. Clearly, lots of EV drivers were on their way home after spending Thanksgiving with family and friends and needed to top up their charge on the road trip home.
In fact, 2024 saw a massive increase in the number of charging sessions across the country. Indeed, compared to 2023, the total volume of charging sessions during Thanksgiving week increased by nearly 50 percent, indicative of increased EV adoption, increased number of EVs on American roads, as well as drivers’ increased confidence that EVs can go the distance on road trips.
Interestingly, Paren says that the actual average charger utilization rate, which is the number of minutes a charger was actually delivering electricity to a vehicle, compared to the number of minutes it is theoretically available, actually decreased slightly, from 24 percent in 2023 to 22 percent in 2024.
This seemingly conflicting stat reflects that the actual number of available chargers has increased massively over the last year. Indeed, the number of available fast-charging ports on highly travelled routes has increased by nearly 50 percent since last Thanksgiving. That’s impressive!
EV Charger Reliability Improved in 2024
One major concern for potential EV buyers, according to studies from J.D. Power and others, continues to be the reliability of public charging infrastructure. While public charging reliability still isn’t perfect, Paren’s stats show that charger reliability across the country increased in 2024, reaching 85.5 percent, a 3.4 percentage point increase compared to 2023. Paren’s reliability stats not only measure “uptime” when the charger is actually turned on, but also whether drivers were able to initiate and complete a successful charging session.
Still, 85.5 percent is a bit off from the standard 97 percent goal set out by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program standards. Reasons that chargers were not able to deliver a successful charge varies from hardware and software issues to broken connectors, cut cables, payment processing issues, or the charger losing the ability to connect to the Internet.
Improvements in reliability have primarily been driven by the deployment in recent years of newer, more reliable hardware with better cellular connectivity, as well as the entry into the charging market of new companies with resources and capital to better maintain charging equipment. Such competition has meant that existing charging companies have had to up their game by increasing reliability and connectivity.
Conclusion: Charging Continues to Get Better
While many potential EV buyers, car manufacturers, and government organizations have expressed concerns about charging infrastructure keeping up with growth in EV demand and sales, Paren’s year over year data suggests that, in general, the charging industry has responded well to the increase in EV demand; there are many more chargers available now than there were a year ago, and reliability has improved as well.
Let’s not forget that, for the majority of EV drivers the majority of the time, EV charging infrastructure includes their homes. With a home charger, the majority of EV owners will rarely have to visit a public fast charger, while still enjoying the convenience of having a full “tank” of electrons every morning.
