ChargePoint sets initiatives to improve charger reliability

ChargePoint, one of the largest public electric vehicle charging networks in the U.S., has launched a four point plan to improve the reliability of its chargers.

Charger reliability has become a major sore point for EV drivers. They often pull up to a public charging station only to find it is out of order or won't sync with their vehicle. Auto industry research firm J.D. Power said one in five public charging attempts failed in the first quarter.

The ChargePoint initiatives include opening a network operations center for around-the-clock station monitoring, tracking social media posts that mention charging issues at one of ChargePoint's ports and developing a training and certification program for charger technicians.

The company also plans to incentivize site hosts—or the property owners who own and operate the chargers—to decommission chargers that are no longer functional. ChargePoint will remove and repurpose those chargers.

"Every month or so we run into a station that we're informed isn't operating, and then we can't locate the owner. Or we find the owner and they are not interested in having it repaired," ChargePoint COO Rick Wilmer told Automotive News.

Despite the challenges, ChargePoint said it will maintain its business model of having the majority of its chargers owned by site hosts.

"We don't want stations that are not operational physically out there visible to drivers, leading people to believe they could go there and charge," he said.

Many sites that have nonfunctioning chargers have changed hands since the chargers were installed, Wilmer said. ChargePoint expects a small portion of its network to be decommissioned.

ChargePoint says 96 percent of its chargers are available to dispense energy at any given time. Companies must reach more than 97 percent uptime to be eligible for funding under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.

"We want the charging network to be up all the time and available for drivers to continue to accelerate the adoption of EVs," Wilmer said.

ChargePoint has about 57,000 chargers in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy.