For the second consecutive year, the consulting firm JD Power has carried out its satisfaction survey of electric car users about domestic recharging. 8,216 owners of electric and plug-in hybrid cars marketed in the last five years in the US participated in it. The vast majority fit the ideal of owning an electric car, which is being able to recharge at home, in a single-family home.
Out of a maximum of 1,000 satisfaction points, those users with slow chargers (level 1) averaged 564 points, 188 less than those with fast chargers (level 2), who averaged 752 points. Regarding the first survey, published a year ago, the former is 10 points less satisfied and 11 points more satisfied, respectively.
This means that electric car users have appreciated more the advantages of accelerated or wall chargers, which differ from slow or emergency chargers in several aspects. To name a few, recharging is faster and more stable, it is controllable and programmable, with a charging wall it is much more comfortable, etc. One arrives home, parks pick up a cable from the wall, and plugs it in. That easy.
With a level 2 charger, a greater investment must be made, not only in the device itself but also in some electrical improvements in the house (fuse panel, wiring, etc.). 75% of those surveyed had to make modifications with an electrician at home to install a level 2 charger. In single-phase current -in the case of Europe-, they provide up to 7.2 kW. It is not cheaper to charge this way, but it is more convenient and comfortable.
“With battery capacity increasing it makes sense for many homeowners to do home improvements if they haven’t already. All the parties involved in the electric car sector must pay attention to domestic recharging because 84% do it regularly at home»
Brent Gruber, Senior Director, Global Automotive, JD Power.
The aspects evaluated by JD Power in this survey were fair recharging prices, cable length, charger size, ease of winding and storing the cable, recharging cost, recharging speed, ease of use, and reliability. For example, reload speed changes satisfaction a lot, those using slow reload averaged 326 points, and those using fast reload 687 points.
Satisfaction is maximized with cabin preconditioning. Using energy from the network, the car remains air-conditioned at a specific temperature at a scheduled time, which has an obvious advantage in terms of comfort with large differences in temperature inside and outside and also increases autonomy by not consuming energy intended to the movement for this purpose. Those who precondition averaged 794 points versus those who don’t, 753 points with a stationary charger or 745 points with a portable charger.
The study also yields a worrying conclusion, taking into account that it is the United States, and that is that 40% of slow recharge users and 52% of those who use accelerated recharge are unaware of the offers of their electricity trading company. This means that they are not optimizing the cost or consumption of electricity, perhaps recharging in advance with a more expensive rate and wasting the nightly rates because they are already finished.
By pure logic, the satisfaction of users who are aware of this and optimize spending is greater. Depending on the car model, recharging can be scheduled at a more convenient time, and depending on the charger, this is also programmable. On the other hand, the most satisfied users with level 2 recharge are those of… drum roll… Tesla. Yes, I don’t think anyone is surprised by that conclusion.
