This is an update of the Fast Charger Utilization Study published in October, 2021. I had tracked the electricity usage at four CCS/CHAdeMO fast charging sites plus a Tesla Supercharger in the area around Columbia and Jessup, Maryland. The original sample was during the three months of July, August, and September (Q3).
The purpose was to see how much usage the electric vehicle fast chargers were getting and to gauge the relative utilization between fast chargers located in the same general area.
The chart below is an update that reflects the average daily usage of those same chargers expressed as the approximate number of kWh dispensed per charger port during the last three months of 2021 (Q4).
The five charging stations are located in the area of Columbia and Jessup, Maryland near MD Rt. 175. They are accessible from Exit 41 of Interstate 95 which is midway between Washington, DC and Baltimore.
Charger Map
Tesla, Hanover
The Hanover Supercharger opened on November 14, 2019. This site has eight charging stalls in the parking garage at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve. Each stall is rated to deliver up to 72 kW. This Tesla Supercharger site consumed an average of 2,492 kWh per day according to the electric meter. Dividing the average daily electricity consumption by eight, the total number of charging stalls, results in 312 kWh daily average usage for each charger port. This site has the greatest utilization of all five charging sites compared here.
The Hanover, MD Tesla Supercharger is often busy with Tesla drivers coming and going throughout the day. At times, all eight stalls are occupied. I rarely see vehicles charging at any of the CCS/CHAdeMO fast chargers in this study. That’s why most of the photos of those sites don’t show any cars charging.
EVgo, Elkridge
The EVgo chargers at Gateway Overlook in Elkridge are 1.4 miles (approx. 4 minutes) off of Exit 41. This charging site is the oldest of the five having opened in late 2014. The equipment has been updated since then and both units can deliver up to 50 kW each. A Tesla connector was added to one of the chargers in the summer. This site also has a single J1772 Level 2 port. Fast charging here costs $0.30 per minute plus tax. The average daily usage at this site during the fourth quarter is 82 kWh per port.
Electrify America, Columbia
The Electrify America charging site at Walmart in Columbia, MD opened on November 16, 2019. It has ten CCS dispensers; two have a maximum output of 350 kW and the rest are 150 kW. One dispenser has a 50 kW CHAdeMO connector paired with a 150 kW CCS. The difference between the meter readings at the beginning and the end of the three month period was 39,300 kWh for the entire site. The daily average for the entire site was 427 kWh or about 43 kWh per dispenser. This does not necessarily mean that it all went into vehicles. Some of the electricity powers the cooling of the equipment and is lost in the natural inefficiencies of charging. And of course Electrify America has their distinctive green lights that stay on all night. The Columbia, MD Electrify America site is 2.7 miles and approximately 6 minutes from I-95. Charging costs $0.43 per kWh plus tax.
High’s, Jessup
The 50 kW ChargePoint stations at the High’s convenience store in Jessup are right off the BW Parkway or 3.3 miles (approx. 7 minutes) from I-95 Exit 41. This site opened in March 2020. High’s is open 24 hours and also sells gasoline and diesel fuel. The two chargers dispensed an average of 29 kWh a day each. Together that is about 170 miles of range or the equivalent of about 7.2 gallons of gasoline. *using the assumption of .1255 gallons per kWh
The cost to charge is $0.25 per kWh plus $0.17 per minute via the ChargePoint network.
BGE, HoCo
These utility-owned charging stations are located behind a government office building about 3.0 miles (7 minutes) from Interstate 95. They include six Level 2 charging ports. The charging stations are part of a five-year EV charging pilot that was approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission. Under the pilot, BGE can own and operate a limited number of public charging stations if they are placed on local, state or federal government property. This site cost $161,057 to install and was commissioned on June 24, 2020.
This entire site averaged 27.2 kWh per day including the L2 usage. The Level 2 charging stations are on the same meter so this will affect the comparison to an uncertain degree. The average daily utilization of the two DC fast chargers is presumably less than the 13.6 kWh per charger that was arrived at by dividing the entire site usage by the number of fast chargers (two). There is no way to accurately filter out the L2 usage. Even with this statistical advantage, this site is by far the least utilized among the five examined. It used half the electricity of the chargers at the High’s store in Jessup.
The cost to use these BGE fast chargers is $0.34 per kWh via Greenlots/Shell Recharge.
DCFC Comparison Table
Analyzing the electric usage of the non-Supercharger sites reveals that the two EVgo fast chargers in Elkridge dispense the most electricity if measured by the average amount per port, per day, 82 kWh. The Electrify America site uses more electricity overall, but when divided by 10 ports, it comes to an average of 43 kWh per day for each port.
The Columbia, MD Electrify America site has 10 dispensers capable of 150 to 350 kW which can support a lot more throughput in comparison to the 72 kW stalls at the Tesla Supercharger. However, the Supercharger utilizes more than seven times the kWh per port as the EA site. In September, 2020, PlugInSites compared the energy usage between the Hanover Supercharger and the Electrify America in Columbia.
Many more Teslas are on the road than electric vehicles that use CCS fast chargers right now. How long until the utilization of CCS fast chargers catches up to Tesla Superchargers?
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The more pressing problem is that CCS chargers have a dismal track record with regard to being broken and nonfunctional. Many of the old 50 kW EVgo units have been broken for *months* in some areas and EVgo seems uninterested in fixing them, likely preferring to wait until they can get replaced with newer, higher-power units. Chargepoint has the problem that they and site owners point fingers at each other as to who’s responsible for repairs and maintenance. EA seems to have two or three units down at every site I’ve stopped at within the last year. And every network wants you to load their own junkware app onto your device [if you even have a compatible one] as the preferred, or sometimes only, means of establishing an account. It’s ridiculous. They can’t be regulated and held to decent standards for doing public business soon enough.