Improving EV driver confidence by ensuring a reliable charging infrastructure

With any emerging technology, there’ll be issues to iron out, and electric vehicles (EVs) are no exception. Many of those issues have already improved; for example, battery range is steadily increasing. Perhaps a more pressing concern, however, is how reliably those batteries can be charged when they do reach the end of their range. While more and more charging stations are being installed, those stations are often unreliable, and as a 2023 poll shows, the majority of the public is highly concerned about the problems in EV charging infrastructure.

Kameale Terry, co-founder and CEO of ChargerHelp, has spent much of her career focusing on EV charging stations. Prior to starting her current company alongside co-founder Evette Ellis, she held multiple roles at EV Connect, where she provided support for EV drivers experiencing difficulties with charging stations. A common complaint involved problems with software interoperability. What made things more difficult was that when she sent technicians to repair the stations, they were often unfamiliar with the technology.

Thus, ChargerHelp, founded in 2020, has two main areas of focus: improving the performance of EV charging stations and providing training and certification for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) technicians, increasing the reliability of charging infrastructure and creating stable, well-paying jobs.

Finding solutions by studying the data
This year, ChargerHelp took on a new project that delved deeply into the root causes of EV charging failures. The ChargerHelp Annual Reliability Report: The State of EV Charging and the Driver Experience was released for the first time in June 2024, analyzing an extensive amount of data from multiple sources on public charging infrastructure.

“There have been more and more news reports that come out that say charging stations don't work, but no one ever looks into the why,” Terry says. “I wanted to produce a report that could truly measure what’s happening there. I wanted to also produce a report that allowed us as an industry to address some of the macro issues. What we've seen is that we don't have an overwhelmingly bad player – we kind of have these macros, components that we need to fix and figure out. I love data. I believe wholeheartedly in having information to make good decisions. We want to continue to produce this report to help the industry fix itself, understand what’s working and not working in order for a massive adoption to really happen.”

Terry is quick to reassure that “everything isn’t horrible” with charging infrastructure, but there is plenty to improve on. Interoperability is one area that stood out from the collected data as needing a lot of work. Most EV companies are not vertically integrated, meaning that vehicles, charging stations, connectors, payment terminals, etc. all use different software, which often leads to communication failures and difficulty troubleshooting as it’s not always clear where issues originate. Many communication failures result in discrepancies between reported uptime and actual uptime. An app may show a charging station as working and available when, in reality, it’s not. This is understandably frustrating for drivers.

Then there are prevention measures that can be taken to limit station downtime. Many charging stations were installed free of charge due to subsidies, Terry explains, and the owners didn’t budget for operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. This becomes a bigger problem as charging stations age, and requires allocation of more funding specifically for EVSE infrastructure O&M.

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ChargerHelp itself is working to solve many of these issues through its Reliability as a Service (RaaS) offering, a subscription service somewhat like an insurance policy for EV charging stations – customers pay a monthly fee in exchange for quick troubleshooting and maintenance from trained technicians. ChargerHelp is responsible for training many of those technicians, as well. The company recently launched online and in-person training and certification programs for EVSE technicians, the curriculum for which is aligned with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)’s Body of Knowledge. ChargerHelp is also the training provider for Goodwill International’s new National CleanTech Accelerator.

Key to these training programs, Terry says, is ensuring the technicians working on the physical charging stations also understand the software, as that’s the driving force behind not only the successful operation of charging stations but also much of the general infrastructure of the present and future. As software enters the built environment, being well-versed in it opens up opportunities for workers beyond just EVSE maintenance and repair. Robotic delivery, smart roads – as technology continues to develop, so too will fulfilling, well-paying jobs for people who understand how it operates.

Working together to transform the technology
One of the takeaways from the Reliability Report is while charging infrastructure problems may be frustrating, they’re also highly fixable. Every new technology – from the wheel to the Internet – has had growing pains. We tend to forget that, however, and think because something isn’t running as smoothly as it could right now, it’s a failure. This isn’t at all the case, Terry says. Communication and collaboration are extremely important in solving issues and improving driver confidence, and the EV industry does those things well. She points to SAE as an example, noting how the organization brought together multiple competitors to craft an industry-verified EVSE technician training and certification program.

“I want to highlight and acknowledge the innovation that’s happening, but I also want to provide context to the industry to say, hey, we’ve done hard things before,” she says. “Just because something is hard right now, does that mean it won’t be fixed later? I’ve been really proud of the industry continually figuring out how to collaborate. A lot of these folks in this industry are my peers and people I respect deeply, and I know what they’re doing is very hard. I think the more we can come together to collaborate, that’ll also improve the overall experience, which then will improve every driver’s trust.”