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Rate Your Charge
End of Year Report
2023
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Welcome to Rate Your Charge! We summarize data from hundreds of fast charger check-ins from regular EV owners. We hold no affiliations with any network, operator, or hardware manufacturer. Our goal is to provide objective feedback and data to improve your EV charging experience.
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In order to effectively visualize the data, we identify whether a check-in was good, bad, or failed.
Good check-in: Requires all the following:
- A successful charge
- An accurate smartphone app
- Full charging speeds on first plug in
- More than 50% of chargers on site working at full speed
Bad check-in: Users were still able to charge their vehicles, but their experience was not up to our standards. Check-ins are classified as bad if the charge was successful but the user experienced at least one of the following:
- Faulty/incorrect smartphone app
- Charging speeds limited by the charger
- Needing to re-plug in for any reason
- Calling customer support
- 50% or more chargers at site are limited or down
- 5 or more minutes waiting at a full site
Failed check-in: A failed checking occurs when users are not able to charge their vehicle at all. These are our least favorite. This is the worst-case scenario and may even leave EV owners stranded. We believe failed check-ins are unacceptable.
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We recorded 10,376 check-ins during 2023. These check-ins were not evenly distributed, with the majority of check-ins occurring during the warm summer months or close to holidays such as President's Day, the 4th of July, or Thanksgiving. We received a total of 1534 check-ins during June which was the busiest month of the year.
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Check-ins were not normally distributed throughout the week. Most individuals travel on weekends, and our data shows we received approximately 50% more check-ins on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays when compared to Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays.
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Rate Your Charge focused on fast charging in the United States, and some states were extremely popular. California was the most popular state with 1657 check-ins. We received 619 check-ins from Texas, 534 from Colorado, and 509 from Florida.
We want thank everyone who submitted a check-in, and we want to give special recognition to our top contributors last year. There were 7 users who earned a shout-out for submitting more than 100 check-ins. Thank you all for your continued support and dedication. @pluginsites was our runaway MVP as our top contributor with 779 check-ins. They were the top contributor during the months of March - June, September, and December. They had more check-ins than all other honorable mentions combined!
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The most popular network was Electrify America which accounted for 4240 check-ins followed by Tesla with 3956 check-ins. We received 935 check-ins from other operators, 667 check-ins from ChargePoint, and 578 check-ins from EVgo.
Tesla was the most reliable network throughout 2023 and it was not particularly close. They set the benchmark and finished the year with the highest overall good check-in rate of 92.4% and the lowest failed check-in rate of 0.6%. Tesla was slightly less reliable during the months of February and March, but the difference was marginal and they still maintained good overall reliability. We did not identify any specific trends throughout the months, and our check-ins show the Tesla Supercharger Network can reliably provide good fast charging experiences regardless of weather or how popular a charger may be.
We recorded 71 app/navigation inaccuracies, only 1.8% of all Tesla check-ins. The most common app inaccuracies included problems where the app or navigation screen showed the incorrect number of stalls available or failed to indicate certain chargers as unavailable or limited. In many instances, drivers were able to charge successfully by simply moving to another stall that was not broken.
While drivers may feel frustrated by unexpected lines or limited charging speeds, becoming stranded is a far more serious concern. Occasionally we receive an app inaccuracy paired with a failed check-in. This is a worst-case scenario because it can leave drivers stranded without warning. We recorded 4 app inaccuracies paired with failed check-ins from Tesla. While this is a very low number, we believe 0 is the only acceptable number of app inaccuracies paired with failed check-ins.
ChargePoint finished 2023 in second place with an overall good check-in rate of 70.6% and a failed check-in rate of 8.5%. We could not identify a cause or reason behind ChargePoint's uncharacteristically good reliability throughout June. Aside from June, ChargePoint's reliability was generally below 70% good check-ins but we have seen slight but appreciable improvements between October and December.
It is worth mentioning that although ChargePoint was 2nd in reliability, many of their installations have the CPE250 chargers which provide relatively low power. With that being said, many chargers are being upgraded and newer installations have ChargePoint Express Plus units which can provide much more power.
We recorded 28 app inaccuracies from ChargePoint, a rate of 4.2%. We saw a variety of inaccuracies ranging from incorrectly marking a charger as limited to failing to show a charger as unavailable. We recorded 7 app inaccuracies paired with failed check-ins.
Other operators had a 65.9% good check-in rate and a 13.3% failed check-in rate. We believe failed check-in rates above 10% are concerningly high. However, there were numerous operators grouped in this category, and we recorded a wide variety of reliability from operators in this category. Below we show each operator that had at least 30 check-ins. We also included a table at the end of the report with a breakdown of all operators with at least 3 check-ins during 2023.
Rivian had an outstanding performance with 92% good check-ins and a 3% failed check-in rate. This reliability nearly reaches, but does not match, Tesla's great reliability. Much like Tesla, the Rivian network is exclusively accessible to Rivian vehicles. We also want to recognize Circle K who finished the year with a very solid 85% good check-in rate and a 1% failed check-in rate.
We unfortunately also need to acknowledge some of the poorest performing operators. FPL Evolution finished with just 53% good check-ins and a 12% failed check-in rate. Shell Recharge was the worst performing operator with at least 30 check-ins. They disappointed us with a 53% good check-in rate and a 16% failed check-in rate.
We recorded 39 app inaccuracies from other operators in 2023. We saw many inaccuracies from almost every operator. Rivian was the only operator who performed particularly well when it came to app inaccuracies.
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EVgo finished the year with 62.1% good check-ins and 10.0% failed check-ins. Their failed check-in rate was concerningly high. We observed considerable variablility in reliability from month to month. Although they had some bright spots, EVgo only earned 4th place in reliability. We did not observe any notable trends in reliability, and the causes for bad and failed check-ins were varied.
We recorded 32 app inaccuracies from EVgo last year, about 5.5% of check-ins. This was a slightly disappointing figure. The app sometimes struggled to accurately display the status of its chargers. We recorded 6 app inaccuracies paired with failed check-ins.
Electrify America came in last place. They consistently displayed back-of-the-pack reliability in our check-ins. They finished the year with 51.5% good check-ins. It's not entirely bad news, though. Electrify America had just 1.6% failed check-ins. This was one of the lowest failed check-in rates of any operator. While many drivers may feel frustrated with lines and limited charging speeds, failed check-ins were relatively uncommon.
We documented the Electrify America network straining under high demand. July, August, and September were some of the busiest months of the year, and Electrify America's reliability took a considerable nosedive. We observed a large increase of check-ins with drivers reporting lines, limited charging speeds, and locations with multiple broken chargers. Good check-in rates dipped below 50%.
There was steady improvement in good check-in rates between August and November. We want to commend Electrify America for their efforts in improving reliability. While there was a long way to go, Electrify America was finally trending in the right direction. We were disappointed to see reliability start to waver in late November. Good check-in rates decreased during the busiest travel days around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Despite this minor hiccup, we are cautiously optimistic that Electrify America will be able to once again get reliability trending in the right direction.
Electrify America had the most app inaccuracies (315) as well as the highest app inaccuracy rate (7.4%). This has been a notable problem for many months, and the Electrify America app still struggles to accurately report the status of its chargers, whether they are available, in use, limited, or unavailable. We recorded 17 instances of app inaccuracies paired with failed check-ins.
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Smartphone app accuracy is a critical yet often overlooked component of the charging experience. Imagine you pull out your phone and pick a charger, you check the app and see 3 chargers are working and available. You arrive only to find two chargers down and one charger working at reduced speed. This is app inaccuracy.
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Although our data analysis has largely focused on operators, we also collected data on charger hardware. We can see how different hardware performed below. Tesla was the most reliable hardware in our data. Both Delta and FreeWire hardware demonstrated good reliability. Signet was one of the worst performers. We did not receive many failed check-ins from Signet hardware, but only 45% of Signet check-ins were good. Many bad check-ins were attributed to the "Signet Surge" which presents itself as rapidly fluctuating, limited charging speeds. The problems mostly affect vehicles on 800 V architectures. The Signet Surge is an ongoing problem and has been documented for months. Tritium was the worst performing hardware in our data. They had 35% good check-ins and an astonishing 35% failed check-in rate. Many problems are related to the RT50 unit. Despite its modest popularity, it is low powered and our data indicates it is not very reliable. Many locations have just a single RT50 unit leading to many failed check-ins.
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After careful consideration, we have decided to end our current Rate Your Charge activities. While fast charging for the US can still get better, we're proud of the role that our data has played in helping draw mainstream attention to problems related to fast charging. We hope this attention and coverage will help improve the fast charging experience for all EV drivers.
Going forward, our Rate Your Charge page will make announcements about major outages or problems related to fast charging. We aim to be a "bat signal" to warn drivers. Our announcements may also help operators identify and fix problems if and when they occur.
We want to thank each and every person again for submitting check-ins. Our reports would not have been possible without your help.
-RateYourCharge
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Breakdown of operators in "other" category
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