A new study from J.D. Power says Tesla’s EV charging network is significantly more reliable than ones from competitors. Automotive News says that the company’s E-Vision Intelligence Report shows that about 21.6 per cent of EV drivers going to non-Tesla public charging stations in the first quarter of 2023 weren’t able to charge their vehicles. Comparatively, just 3.9 per cent of Tesla drivers had the same issue using Tesla’s Supercharger network.
This news comes as Tesla’s network gains traction as an industry standard in the United States. In recent weeks, Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Volvo and Polestar have announced they’d be adding Tesla’s North American Charging Standard socket to their EVs in the next several years. Auto News reports that Stellantis and Hyundai/Kia are also mulling over similar deals.
One of the benefits of Tesla’s Superchargers, according to J.D. Power, is that it’s more vertically integrated than competitors. It apparently allows Tesla to control and test compatibility between vehicle hardware and software and Supercharger hardware and software.
On the flip side of the coin are non-proprietary charging networks which are horizontally integrated. They rely on coordination and maintenance by “several stakeholders” from the charge point operators to host sites. They’ve also got to work with a slew of different vehicles running different software. Tesla doesn’t have this complexity to deal with.
In terms of customer satisfaction, it won’t be much of a surprise to learn that Tesla scores much higher than all other manufacturers. J.D. Power says that on a 1,000-point scale, Tesla scored 734 and everyone else was at 558. Do with that information what you will.
When looking at scale, Tesla is also the winner here. Auto News says Tesla has 19,500 Superchargers in the U.S. Everyone else has to make due with about 11,500 fast chargers spread across the country.