How much usage do electric vehicle fast chargers get? How about the relative utilization between similar fast charger sites in the same geographical area? Below are the results of a Fast Charger Utilization Study conducted over the summer to get a rough idea of which fast chargers EV drivers are actually using in a particular area along the I-95 corridor between Washington, DC and Baltimore.
For the 90-day period between July 1 and September 30, 2021, I tracked the electricity usage at four DC fast charging sites in the area of Columbia and Jessup, Maryland. All four charging stations are along MD Rt. 175 and are accessible from Exit 41 of Interstate 95.
Electrify America, Columbia
The Electrify America charging site at the 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 90 day period was 35,400 kWh. The daily average for the entire site was 393 kWh. This does not necessarily mean that all that went into vehicles. Some of it is used to power and cool the electronics and of course to keep that green glow going. Electrify America, Columbia is 2.7 miles and approximately 6 minutes from I-95.
EVgo, Gateway Overlook
The EVgo chargers at Gateway Overlook are 1.4 miles (approx. 4 minutes) off of Exit 41. This charging site is the oldest of the four 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 recently added to one of the chargers here. This site also has a single J1772 Level 2 port. Fast charging here costs $0.30 per minute. The average daily usage at this site is 95 kWh measured at the meter over the 90 day period.
ChargePoint, High’s Jessup
The ChargePoint stations at the High’s convenience store in Jessup are 3.3 miles (approx. 7 minutes) from I-95 Exit 41. These opened in March 2020 and are rated at 50 kW each. These are located close to the BW Parkway. The High’s store is open 24 hours. This site used an average of 45 kWh a day. This is less than half of the usage at the EVgo. The cost to recharge here is $0.25 per kWh plus $0.17 per minute via the ChargePoint network.
Greenlots, BGE Ascend One
This Greenlots charging site is located in the parking lot of the Ascend One, Howard County building. The charging stations are part of a five-year EV charging pilot program that was approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission. Under the program, BGE can own and operate 500 public charging stations if they are placed on local, state or federal government property. These charging stations cost $161,057 to install and opened on June 25, 2020.
Greenlots operates the network on these units, handles support calls, and reportedly helps to coordinate maintenance and repairs. This site has three dual-port Level 2 charging stations on the same meter. This will affect the comparison somewhat since this study attempts to judge the relative utilization of the DC fast chargers. This site averaged 22 kWh per day including the L2 usage. This is by far the least utilized charging site among the four. This entire site used half the electricity of the next lowest utilized site, High’s in Jessup. Presumably, the utilization would be even less than 22 kWh per day if we were able to filter out the L2 usage.
The cost to use these fast chargers is $0.34 per kWh via the Greenlots mobile app or RFID card. The BGE Ascend One charging site is 3.0 miles (7 minutes) from the exit off Interstate 95.
DCFC Comparison Table
Analyzing the electric usage of the four fast charger sites reveals that the EVgo dispenses the most electricity if measured by the average amount per port, per day, 47 kWh. The Electrify America site uses more electricity per day overall, but when divided by 10 ports, it comes to an average of 39 kWh per day for each port.
BONUS: Tesla Supercharger, Hanover
The Hanover Supercharger opened November 11, 2019. This site has eight charging stalls on the third level of the parking garage at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve. The maximum power to each stall is 72 kW. This Tesla Supercharger opened about the same time as the Electrify America site in Columbia. In September, 2020, PlugInSites compared the energy usage between these two sites. In the same 90-day period as the four DC fast chargers above were tracked, this Tesla Supercharger averaged 2,230 kWh per day. This is over 5 times the daily average of the Electrify America in Columbia.
I almost never saw vehicles charging at any of the CCS/CHAdeMO fast chargers when I visited them to record the meter readings. That’s why most photos here don’t show any cars charging. The Hanover, MD Tesla Supercharger was always busy. Tesla drivers were constantly coming and going. Sometimes all eight stalls filled up.
The chart above adds the daily average kWh used at the Hanover Supercharger. The Electrify America has 10 dispensers at up to 350 kW which can support a lot more throughput in comparison to the Tesla site.
There are many more Teslas on the road right now than electric vehicles that use CCS fast chargers. In time, that will probably even out as more EVs that use CCS come to market. How long will it be until the utilization of CCS fast chargers catches up to Tesla Superchargers?
This study should have included Tesla Superchargers that are on the I-95 corridor and likely to be used by EV drivers passing through the area. Hanover Supercharger is only used by local EV drivers. CCS utilization will catch up to Tesla Superchargers once the charging speed and network catches up to Tesla. Right now EA is not even in certain states such as West Virginia so you would have to drive around entire states in some cases. ChargePoint is not even installing anything faster than 62.5kw, very sad. Have never seen Greenlots faster than 50kw. EVgo has a few at 100 kw but many are only 50kw and reliability is a big issue as it is EA. The status of CCS chargers in this country is just sad, only way I know how to describe it.