How EVCS is Repairing Reliability Concerns

One of the biggest concerns among EV drivers today is the reliability of public chargers. One recent survey from the Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley claims as many as 23% of public chargers in the Bay Area alone are, as Wired sums up, “nonfunctioning at any given time, stymied by broken screens, shoddy credit card or payment systems, network connection failures, or damaged plugs.” And that’s in a locale prioritizing the conversion to electric. Testimony from motorists seems to corroborate these findings. A CEC survey of 1,290 EV drivers found that fully 60% had experienced damaged or inoperable chargers, while almost half needed assistance from customer service. We find this wholly unacceptable and have taken measures to ensure that chargers in the EVCS network rise to the standard of operability our customers expect. Here are a few ways we’re doing that:

Renovating Existing Infrastructure

In the summer of 2020, we purchased the West Coast Electric Highway, a contiguous network of 56 charging stations in Oregon and Washington. Unfortunately, the chargers were outdated and several had fallen into disrepair. By October of 2021, the first phase in our estimated two-year renovation project had begun, complete with the incorporation of new proprietary networking software, updated payment portals, CCS1 connectors and replacement of old Level 2 and Level 3 chargers.

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Utilizing State-of-the-Art Hardware

Our Tritium RT50 chargers are acknowledged by industry experts as among the highest quality available. Their efficiency rating is greater than 90%, with 6000 VAC surge protection, and they maintain peak performance in both extreme heat and subzero temperatures. They’re durable, lightweight and equipped with a patented liquid-cooling technology that allays the effects of humidity, dust and corrosion.

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Remote Operational Testing

We maintain a powerful centralized platform that is connected to every charger in our network. This allows us to routinely run diagnostics checks that ensure optimum operability across every area, from electrical flow to RFID connectivity to the status of charging ports and adapters. If we find an issue, we remotely “reboot” the charger as a first step in our maintenance and repair protocols.

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Expert Technicians

If a reboot fails to solve the issue, we send a specially trained technician to service the equipment. However, some issues might fail to appear on one of our remote tests, which is why we routinely send field techs out to inspect every one of our installations across the West Coast. Working to preemptively address issues means less of a chance our customers get burdened with the hassle of faulty equipment.

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Responsive Customer Service

Despite all our mitigating efforts, we understand problems will still arise. That’s why we maintain a round-the-clock customer support team every day of the year to address charger issues. We can be reached by phone, email or website form, and we respond promptly to issues on social media. Customers who call in will be connected to a live person who is knowledgeable, empathetic and driven to achieve maximum satisfaction.

According to a recent article in Greenbiz, “To accelerate the transition to 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales for new passenger vehicles in the U.S., the emphasis on charging infrastructure must equally focus on deploying more stations and ensuring a reliable driver experience. Otherwise, we risk slowing down EV adoption…” We completely agree. We remain committed to keeping our chargers in top working order and providing customers a simple, reliable and seamless charging experience.

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Catering to Niche Markets

EV drivers are as unique as the cars they own. All have special reasons why electric mobility is the sensible choice for them. In that vein, we recognize that building a massive new EV network is not a one-size-fits all strategy, but one that takes into account the needs of niche groups across the country. Below is just a smattering of the smaller market subsets we have in mind as we aim to make the transition to electric feel more personal and individualistic based on things like interests, jobs, and locale.

How the Ukrainian Crisis Could Affect the EV Market

As the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate, concerns over how a prolonged incursion may affect global markets has become a frequent topic of discussion, even as major world powers issue a raft of sanctions against Russia in an effort to end the conflict sooner. There are certain to be ramifications for the EV industry specifically as a consequence of the dispute, some of which we’re already starting to see, although their duration and severity are still in question. Here are some of the most prominent.

How EVCS is Helping Change America’s EV Charging Experience

As most of us know, Congress recently approved $7.5 billion in spending for new EV charging installations as part of the larger infrastructure bill, which we expect will help facilitate a speedier transition away from fossil fuels. Even with EV sales increasing in recent years, reports suggest that 25 percent of all carbon emissions still come from the tailpipe, so anything the government can do to kick things up a notch is surely welcome. However, even with such a sizable investment, many challenges still exist that network operators like EVCS will have to help overcome. In a recent article on TheVerge.com, several prescient examples were cited of core areas to focus on if we want to make mass EV adoption a reality. Below are a few such areas and how EVCS is addressing them.

Installation of the Month (February 2022): Sierra Commons Shopping Plaza

The next stage in the evolution of EV charging will be a network operator’s ability to target consumers with advertising and media content pertinent to their demographic. Our recent partnership with minority-owned iKahan Media has afforded us just that opportunity, allowing for the expansion and creation of “a digital billboard network combining EVCS chargers with state-of-the-art LED screens,” as reported last year in a release on PR Newswire. (You can read that entire piece here) Such an initiative is intended to improve the economics of public charging by generating an additional revenue stream for both us and site hosts, providing advertisers with a select new platform for reaching consumers, and increasing value for EV drivers who want to see content that’s relevant to them.

The Key to Becoming Carbon Negative

We hear a lot about the desire for carbon neutrality these days, and while that’s noble indeed, we at EVCS have set our sights on even loftier goals. Our mission is to become carbon negative, meaning not only have we reduced carbon emissions to negligible levels, but we have offset more carbon than we contribute to the environment through techniques like avoidance, sequestration and carbon capture.