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Dec 6, 2022Liked by The Fast Charge

Tom, nice piece on DCFC reliability. My US Fast Charger analysis is also showing, among other things, that communication reliability is key to getting above the 93-95% line. Some stations give out free electrons when communications fail. This all makes calculating availability based on station data feeds a difficult proposition, but it should get us pretty close. Keep the info coming....

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Dec 6, 2022Liked by The Fast Charge

A great write up on charger reliability. The goods news is that in our industry the parts shortage is starting to ease and we might be back to normal by the end of next year, so hopefully chargers will be the same.

One thing you didn't mention was that often the failure was due to the card reader. Tesla don't have these which is one of the reasons they are more reliable. Plug and Charge removes the need for a card reader, and quite a few new cars have the hardware even if the software isn't ready yet.

One thing you didn't mention is that older EVs are far more reliant on legacy <=50kW chargers, and we are in danger of having an entire fleet of cars rendered useless as their infrastructure dies.

Another thing is that many of 2025's cars will have sufficient range to never, or extremely rarely, need a journey charger. This must be weighing on operator's minds as these are the cars whose owners spend the most on charging.

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