Barriers to Electric Vehicle Adoption in 2024

According to a new study from McKinsey, American drivers are still hung up on range, charger availability and charging speed?

Management consulting giant McKinsey & Co. has released a comprehensive study on consumer sentiment regarding EV chargers. The survey covers home charging as well as public charging at work and remotely. For automotive manufacturers and retailers, the survey provides insight into the challenges of selling electric vehicles to people who may not have the information they need about life with an EV.?

The Challenge of EV Charging??

For most potential EV owners, the biggest misunderstanding is how they’re going to live with a vehicle that doesn’t utilize the 150,000 fueling stations across the country.?

Consider the questions you’d have if you were switching your home heating source from oil to a pellet stove: What is the cost differential? Where do I get pellets? How often do I have to fill the stove? How long does it take???

It’s the same consideration for many Americans, and what’s clear from the McKinsey & Company study is that they’re not getting the answers they need, either from the auto manufacturers, their retailers or the traditional media.??

Range and Charging Station Availability??

Range is the constant source of concern for those considering an EV. According to the McKinsey report, the range that most Americans would be satisfied with a moving target. In 2019, that range was 270 miles. Just four years later, that range jumped 15 percent to 310 miles, with another 40 percent stating that 400 miles or more would have to be available before they considered an EV.??

According to the EPA, the median range of ICE-powered vehicles is 403 miles. But when you can simply refuel at a convenient location and get back on your way in minutes, range is much less of a concern.??

Is it Range or Number of EV Charging Ports??

According to the McKinsey & Company study, there are two major objections to switching to an electric vehicle: Remote charging availability and overall range. 42 percent of those surveyed suggested that they were concerned about charger availability and the same percentage was concerned about range.??

A recent New York Times headline referred to the current state of the charging network as a “slow rollout,” but the numbers don’t bear that out at all, suggesting that the media may be muddying some already turbulent waters regarding EV adoption.?

“Many buyers are unwilling to consider an electric vehicle purchase until the availability of chargers is equivalent to that of gas stations,” the survey concludes. “About 2.6 million ports were available in 2022…the country will need approximately 9.5 million ports by 2025 and 28 million by 2023.”??

Charging Speed is More Important?

Of course, the challenge is that EV charging takes longer than a gas engine fill-up, and that’s the other key piece of McKinsey’s findings. Charging speed is the number one concern for vehicle shoppers.??

At home, charging speed is much less of an issue, because most EV owners plug in overnight when the vehicle isn’t in use. But when you’re on the road, a Level 2 charger simply doesn’t cut it unless it’s at a hotel, an airport parking lot, an office, or other places where drivers will be spending eight to ten hours at a minimum. On a road trip, only a Level 3 or DC Fast Charger is effective, and they are in dramatically short supply.??

ChargePoint – the largest EV charging network in the US – has 56,000 charging ports in total around the country, rivaling Tesla with its claimed 50,000 plus. But within a 20-mile radius of the MetroWest suburbs of Boston, there are only about 50 DC Fast Chargers available, and at the time of this writing, there are only about a dozen that are available to use. ? ?

The question isn’t whether the country has the correct number of chargers. It’s whether we have enough DC Fast Chargers to get cars back on the road in the 45-minute timeframe that most EV owners would consider vital. Charging speed claims from vehicle manufacturers are based on DC Fast Charging, not on Level 2 charging.?

Tesla is in an advantageous position with its relatively abundant Supercharger DC Fast Chargers network. The company claims 50,000 globally, with around 2,000 here in the States, mostly centered around major shopping centers and turnpike rest areas.

At the moment, those Superchargers are for Tesla customers only, but other manufacturers are adapting their EVs to charge on the Tesla network. Subaru recently announced that in 2025, there will be an adapter available for its Solterra EV to charge at Tesla Superchargers, and some future BEVs will be manufactured with this compatibility.?Ford recently announced this as well.

While Tesla owns its charging network, other OEMs have farmed their networks out to third parties like ChargePoint, EVGo and EV Connect. These networks aren’t always reliable.?

“I’ve had several experiences driving EVs where chargers are either broken, or for some reason won’t recognize my phone at the reader,” says DCI Marketing automotive editor Craig Fitzgerald . “Even in a less populated city like Portland, Maine, though, I’ve been able to find a DC Fast Charger open at another location nearby.”

In another instance, the chargers at a busy shopping center were working, but in use. “I did have to wait around for a bit for a charger to open, which is definitely not something you want to do often, especially when the weather gets bad,” says Fitzgerald.??

Range, number of chargers and charging speed are the factors keeping consumers out of EVs. But it may be that consumer and media education about these three topics might be what’s truly lacking. The work of addressing those concerns has just started.?

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