Along with a need for expansion in general, many of the concerns revolving around existing all-electric vehicle charging infrastructure pertain to reliability – or a lack thereof, really. This is precisely why Ford launched its “Charge Angels” program years ago, which aims to identify problematic chargers and ensure that they stay up and running on a more consistent basis, as well as why the U.S. government is investing millions to boost charger readability. Now, one Ford EV partner claims that its own charger reliability has improved as of late.
That Ford EV partner is Electrify America, according to Automotive News, and this notion is backed by hard data, too. In fact, EA users experienced charger failures on nine percent of their sessions in Q1 2024 according to J.D. Power, which is down from 11 percent in both the first quarter of 2022 and 2023. This trend was echoed by other EV charging providers as well, which is notable given the fact that in the first quarter, those combined entities had a failure rate of 20 percent, compared to just five percent for Tesla’s Supercharger network.
To reach this level of improvement, Electrify America has replaced some of its aging equipment with newer chargers, and plans to update the vast majority of its 4,250 charger network by the end of 2024, while bringing software development in-house and simplifying the payment process – all in an attempt to make charging an EV just as dependable as fueling up an ICE vehicle. “When you go buy an ICE vehicle today, you’re not thinking about how to fuel your car,” said Electrify America CEO Robert Barrosa. “EV buyers wonder ‘How am I going to charge the car?’ We’ve really got to get to a point where we take that out of the calculus.”
At the same time, EA plans to continue to expand its charging network in the coming years to meet increased demand, and expects to have 5,000 DC fast chargers in its portfolio across North America by the end of 2024. The company will also begin adding North American Charging Standard (NACS) plugs to its network soon, which is notable given the fact that most automakers – including Ford – plan to adopt that same standard.
We’ll have more on Electrify America soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comment
All the EV America charging stations seem to be unsupervised, so no one is watching for vandalism. They must add security cameras and post warning signs to prevent vandalism. Or mount tthe charging stations at regular gasoline ststions which have supervision.