EV owners are increasingly frustrated with home charging, and it should worry every electric car maker

Eggs, gas, and now electric vehicles. Inflation is hitting electricity rates, making EV home charging a more miserable experience for some drivers at the absolute worst time.

A new J.D. Power study of EV owners who use Level 2 home-charging stations found that overall satisfaction in the home charging experiences has declined 12 points since last year. A major factor in this decline in satisfaction was the inflationary rise in electricity prices, the study found.

This could pose a real problem for the EV market, as home charging has often been held up as a solution to daily range-anxiety issues. Without a robust public charging infrastructure, daily home charging is currently key to effective EV ownership, according to automotive executives, dealers, and analysts.

"Whether you're an automaker, dealer or utility company participating in the EV ecosystem, improving the EV owner experience with respect to home charging should be a common goal shared by all," Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, said in the study.

Geography played a role in overall satisfaction levels with home charging, J.D. Power found. In New England, where electricity prices surge at peak hours, home charging satisfaction saw the largest year-over-year decline.

Only about half of EV owners in the study said they had an understanding of their local utility company programs for home charging. Increasing this awareness is key to improving the EV home charging experience, said Adrian Chung, J.D. Power's director of utilities intelligence.

Plugging in our EV is part of the motion of getting out of the EV. Even though we drive our ICE pickup so little that we have to fill up its gas tank about once every 2 months, we literally spend more time waiting the 5 or so minutes to gas up the ICE truck (25 gallon tank) than the total plugs/unplugs with the EV. That is, it's that way for my wife.

For me it's a couple of more steps because I'm a numbers guy. LOL When I get out of the EV and plug it in I like to look at the miles/kWh throughput tracked by the EV. I then walk over and press a button on one of my solar inverters to display how much power I've pulled from the grid (usually nothing) vs. how much the house consumed without having to pull from the grid, how much the home solar batteries are charged, etc. It's basically my equivalent of when I used to do most of my driving in my ICE pickup I'd pay attention to gas prices every time I passed a gas station.

Absolutely NOTHING works well or right or at all any longer.

It isn’t just joe, it is the gooberment in general, it screws up everything it touches. The congress can’t even pass legislation to end the time change madness that 71% of the sheeple just don’t like. Instead of listening to the sheeple they are to represent they keep trying and claiming to “lead”. We don’t intend to elect “leaders” we intended to elect representatives. People who will represent us and what we want not try to conjure it up.

What we want and need is less gooberment, fewer programs, fewer laws, old existing laws that work and are enforced. If we want anything else we’ll tell the representatives. Who they should listen to is the majority and not just the latest interest group that claim to be the majority.

Fewer laws, less gooberment, effective and efficient gooberment, no new initiatives, not “leadership” but representation instead.

How about gooberment and congress and even the administration don’t do anything for awhile? Just give us a damn break fro you in our lives and in the press invading our every waking moment?

The big problem that no one has mentioned in the thread is that charging lithium batteries in an EV is not without risk and they have characteristics that few seem to have much understanding of. I have been a Radio Control model car, airplane and drone fan for many years and have quite a bit of money and time invested in charging equipment. I also have lot of experience using rechargeable lithium batteries.

One of the things that people do not seem to realize that affects the longevity of rechargeable lithium batteries is the effect that leaving them fully charged has on them. Fully charged lithium batteries typically lose around 5% of their capacity every month that they are left fully charged. If this is not happening, it is likely that the charging systems are not actually fully charging the batteries so that the 1300 pound $40,000 100kwh long range battery is really only being charged to around 80% of its actual capacity to avoid this type of degradation. With proper metering this will eventually be realized by some owners but most will happily tra-la-la along never noticing that their range is much less than advertised. If your EV is not going to be used for a period of time the battery should be discharged to about 50% of its capacity which is typically about 3.8 volts per cell.

And of course leaving lithium rechargeable batteries in a discharged state for an extended period will degrade them faster than leaving them fully charged. But even worse if they are somehow discharged to less than 3.2 volts per cell they will be permanently damaged and likely destroyed. This can also happen to individual cells which are defective or whose connections become damaged or corroded, or the balance charging circuitry goes haywire. I can't tell you how many batteries that I have had to throw away because they became discharged because some type of load from the equipment they were left in took them down too far. Fortunately, many of them were just a few dollars apiece. But some have been much more expensive, but nothing compared to an EV battery.

Another characteristic that most do not seem to realize that fast charging is both risky and hard on lithium rechargeable batteries. The other thing that is hard on these batteries is discharging them at a higher rate than normal. This raises their internal temperature to a point that permanent damage can easily be done. Of course, this is exasperated by hot weather especially when an air conditioner is being used in addition to the normal load. But the most obvious challenge that are likely to cause a problem are trying to drive over mountain passes or towing any type of trailer.

And of course, there is the well known problem that when the temperatures go down the ability of rechargeable lithium batteries to perform to their rated capacity can and will drop to a very small fraction of what one would normally expect. But some people do not realize that if lithium batteries are below 26F and they are not heated back up to a temperature that is above this level that charging can cause permanent damage and they can explode. This is not as much of a problem if they were fully charged before the cold temperatures, but can be devastating if the batteries were discharged and then allowed to freeze. A $40,000 battery can easily be destroyed if not properly warmed before charging. The way this is done in well-designed vehicles and charging system such as that found in a Tesla... is that all the power from the charger is diverted to the heating pads until the battery reaches a safe temperature for charging. Depending on the outside temperature, the temperature of the battery, and the capacity of the charger this may take a considerable amount of time or may not work at all. Systems from other manufacturers which are newer to the game are more likely to be in the "not work at all" category.

I have got to end my post at this point, but the ignorance of most on this subject is actually quite shocking and this often even includes EV owners who I have spoken and conversed with. They typically do not understand the limitations of their vehicle's batteries or how they should be properly treated. If you own an EV you should really spend some time investigating the intricacies of rechargeable batteries. This is also true if you have some type of solar system with rechargeable batteries although those should be some form of lead acid which are much more robust and cheaper for that type of application...

Sorry in advance for the typos.

Here's my reply as both an EV owner and solar owner. For clarity, my EV is now about 9 months old and my solar batteries are either 6 months old or close to 2 years old. I point these timeframes out both to admit that I'm not speaking from long-term experience, and also to state that I'm using new technology (as opposed to discussing battery and charging technology from 10 or 20 years ago).

One of the things that people do not seem to realize that affects the longevity of rechargeable lithium batteries is the effect that leaving them fully charged has on them.
Agreed. Most EV manufacturers recommended topping it off regularly at 80%, going up to only 100% when about to start a long trip to the next charger. You noted this later in your post.

...so that the 1300 pound $40,000 100kwh long range battery...
If I had to replace the battery in my EV it'd cost about $10K (if there was no warranty). Of course my EV isn't a Tesla, which stands for Too Expensive Still Liberals Adore. LOL

...battery is really only being charged to around 80% of its actual capacity to avoid this type of degradation. With proper metering this will eventually be realized by some owners but most will happily tra-la-la along never noticing that their range is much less than advertised. If your EV is not going to be used for a period of time the battery should be discharged to about 50% of its capacity which is typically about 3.8 volts per cell.
Most EV owners I know actually knew this up front before getting their EV. The same for most solar battery owners (though the solar battery specs often encourage charging them fully daily, especially the LifePo4's). The same with discharging to a recommended floor instead of all the way to 0% charge. Most EV owners and solar battery owners know this up front.

Another characteristic that most do not seem to realize that fast charging is both risky and hard on lithium rechargeable batteries.

Actually most EV owners do realize this. The EV forums are littered with discussions on how frequent is too much to charge the EV with Level 3 roadside chargers. Plus there's even discussion on Level 2 home charging speeds (i.e. is it best to charge at a fast rate of about 11kW to get a more efficient AC to DC conversion and thus pull less power from the grid. Or is it better to regularly charge at a slower rate of about 6kW which is less efficient in the AC to DC conversion and thus adds more to the power bill, but is probably less damaging to the EV battery health). For what it's worth I almost always charge my EV at the slowest Level 2 rate for it which is 5.6kW because most of my power is free from solar anyway.

And of course, there is the well known problem that when the temperatures go down the ability of rechargeable lithium batteries to perform to their rated capacity can and will drop to a very small fraction of what one would normally expect.
On that we're in agreement. I'm frankly surprised at how many EV owners who live up north that didn't study this more fully. On the EV forums I see plenty of them who knew about it, but thought they could weather it (pardon the pun) because they were a true believer in saving the planet or whatever. Now they're admitting that if they had known how bad it was they wouldn't have gotten an EV. LOL I don't see that kind of response among the few of us EV and solar owners who go into it with a small government conservative mindset (getting solar and EV to be more energy independent and prepared for the Dims making energy less available and more expensive). Most of the people I interact with who have my small government mindset are people in the south (better climate for solar and EV) who do their homework and make sure it can be efficient for them in the long run.

I can see that you are extremely knowledgeable about both EVs and solar power systems. You did your homework and have the highest chances of success especially considering the perilous future of our electric grid. Congratulations.

Usually when I point out any of these current challenges, I face derision. We have a lot of electric vehicles in our area; the vast majority are Teslas which likely have the highest level of design maturity despite their costs. I have met no owners here who have the level of understanding that you do and their lack of knowledge is likely to leave them disappointed at points along the way.

Cars, trucks and airplanes are transportation tools designed with specific parameters in mind. If you take care of them they can last a long time and give good service. I am happy to hear that you understand the limitations of your batteries. I have actually learned a lot about them through tinkering with RC models that may be applicable if we ever decide to get an EV. They typically have a high rate of depreciation, so if one understands how to evaluate the condition of the batteries that they use... it makes it much more likely that a buyer in the used market will have a positive experience.

If you were to get an EV, I think you'll be better than most. I do, however, suggest you consider more than just battery limitations (which you are well aware of). Be aware of grid limitations. For example, there's no way I would have gotten an EV if my wife and I didn't need 2 cars anyway. This means we have both a BEV and and an ICE pickup. The idea is if the grid gets overloaded and charging on long trips are a pain (because chargers are down), then we have an ICE pickup. If, however, the Dims make gas too expensive to use (IMHO the price is still to high) or hard to come by (remember recently when the news stories were that gas stations were out?), we have an EV. Basically having one of each gives us diversification of energy dependency. I don't think I'd get an EV if I didn't also have an ICE car too. But having one of each means the Dims have to take out both energy sources to limit our transportation.

The other thing is how you will charge it effectively. In my case I live in the south and solar is great here. Plus I don't live in Commiefornia where they have third world power experiences. If I lived there I probably wouldn't get an EV. But here in Alabama where the grid rarely goes down and where I get good free power from solar, charging an EV is easy-breezy.

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