EV Utilization Retailer Readiness Report

Published by

Kyle Rowe

November 14, 2024

Plenty of headlines in 2024 have suggested that EV charging adoption in the U.S. is slowing or could slow, given news about new tariffs on Chinese batteries and vehicles, troubles at Tesla, and any number of other potential ‘scare’ factors.

However, the numbers and data counter what headlines might otherwise suggest. For one, EV sales numbers in 2024 remain robust so far. Further, utilization of charging infrastructure is rising, a strong indicator that people are both buying more EVs and using their EVs more.

Before we dive in, what do we mean by utilization? Typically, companies measure utilization as the number of cars that use their chargers on any given day as well as the amount of electricity dispensed per session. This is known in the industry as Sessions Per Day (SPD).

Said more simply, utilization refers to how many cars show up and plug in. Electric Era meanwhile automates the aggregation of this data for retailers, and displays results on real-time dashboards along with historical data, financial trends, and station reliability and uptime for owners of its PowerNode station.

Understanding, analyzing, and predicting utilization is a powerful lever for business operators as it ensures optimal returns on investment and that chargers get installed in the best locations in the first place.

Don’t just take it from us, though. Loren McDonald, CEO of EVAdoption, an EV/EV charging data and analysis firm recently noted: "Charger utilization metrics and trends are foundational to understanding the economic health of your charging station and are the key input for estimating future revenue and profit potential."

What the data shows

Electric Era analyzed a dataset of charger port session data from more than 4,000 charging ports across the U.S. for the year-to-date so far (2024), including both data from Electric Era chargers and other major EV charging suppliers and networks. This data spanned both CCS and NACS ports and omitted stations that didn’t report data for the entire period.

Visual representation of major charging ports hubs
based on the data that Electric Era analyzed

Key takeaways include that, on average, charging stations are seeing rising utilization, even when normalized for heightened traffic in warmer months. Said differently, EV charger utilization is picking up!

We're also seeing increased utilization in markets that might surprise people. Yes, charger utilization is ramping up in bastions of EV adoption, such as California. But it’s actually growing most quickly in states like Arizona and Florida, as well as Arkansas, Indiana, and Tennessee

Specifically, at the county level, the following ten counties had the highest rate of charger utilization growth in 2024 so far for counties that reported at least three charging stations:

It is also true that EV sales are outpacing public charging infrastructure deployment, which helps explain rising utilization (see below). That’s all the more reason to continue to deploy more public chargers, as trends in utilization should remain as EV sales continue to climb.

The Electric Era Difference

At the most basic level, what this means is that it’s an excellent time to deploy EV charging infrastructure for car refill retailers poised to benefit from the transition from internal combustion engines to fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

Electric Era is also perfectly poised to deliver charging infrastructure designed to help owners capitalize on these trends. Electric Era’s PowerNode charging stations combine hardware and software that’s optimized to both ensure reliability with 99.5%+ uptime – a drastic improvement on other public charging infrastructure – and to deliver power to customers quickly without taxing the grid. As a result, Electric Era provides EV drivers with a flawless charging experience and station owners with the best product to fully realize the revenue potential of higher utilization.

How does Electric Era help site owners capitalize on positive trends in site utilization?

The differentiation starts with site selection. By the time stakeholders working with Electric Era are deciding whether to deploy a charger or not, Electric Era has already studied their market and location substantially to determine whether it makes sense from a financial return perspective, a lot of which hinges on its potential utilization.

Electric Era’s site selection analysis is informed by:

Historical datasets of real-world charging locations
A proprietary machine learning model to forecast charging usage
Conservative discounting of free charging deals, station size effects, and more
Forecasts of regional growth from state DOT data as well as electricity price forecasts

And Electric Era’s diligent site selection process is just the start.

From there, Electric Era’s combination of hardware and software sets it apart further from other electric charging infrastructure providers. For one, Electric Era’s charging stations are among the only ones that integrate battery energy storage as a wedge between the grid and the discharging of power to drivers. Not only is this better for the grid, lowers costs, but it also means station owners can discharge power more quickly, offering a superior fast charging experience at a lower price of electricity.

The Power of Driver Data

On top of that, Electric Era’s software helps you ingest and analyze a monumental amount of driver data, both on topics we’ve discussed today, including utilization, but also at more granular, day-to-day, and hour-to-hour levels of demand and supply. This helps better understand how to operate the system most efficiently and drive in-store retail sales.

The best part about the amount of data Electric Era is already collecting at its EV fast charging stations is that retailer operators get compounding benefits from studying the driver data at their stations and projects over the years. With a better understanding of increasing utilization, station owners can get better at forecasting demand and optimizing business operations, revenues, and cost.

Finally, circling back to where we started, Electric Era’s commitment to providing as close to 100% uptime as possible means station owners’ chargers will be online much more than other charging solution, allowing retailers to serve more drivers.

Ready to Deploy?