ChargerHelp! has released its 2025 EV Charging Reliability Report, providing one of the most detailed analyses of public charging infrastructure performance in North America. The study examined over 100,000 charging sessions across 2,400 chargers, with support from partners including Plug In America and Paren.
The findings suggest that uptime, the industry’s traditional metric, is not a reliable indicator of functionality, and that First-Time Charge Success Rate (FTCSR) offers a more accurate view of driver experience and infrastructure performance.
While uptime at many charging sites is reported between 98.7% and 99.9%, only 71% of charging attempts succeed. More than one-third of failures occur at chargers that appear operational, highlighting a critical gap between reported availability and actual usability.
New stations average an 85% FTCSR, but performance declines to 70% by year three, a trend that uptime monitoring alone fails to capture.
“Uptime tells us if a charger is available, but it doesn’t tell us if a driver can plug in and receive a charge on the first attempt,” said Kameale Terry, CEO of ChargerHelp!. “First-time charge success reflects the true user experience, and adopting this measure will help the industry identify and solve persistent reliability issues.”
The report identifies several factors contributing to declining reliability:
- Aging infrastructure: Performance degradation over time without proactive maintenance.
- Compatibility gaps: Hardware and firmware mismatches that prevent vehicles from charging despite high reported uptime.
- Short-term fixes: Hardware swaps and site refreshes that temporarily improve uptime but do not address underlying systemic issues.
“Reliable public charging is critical to the success of electrification,” said Will Hotchkiss, COO of GM Energy and head of public charging. “By shifting focus to metrics like first-time charge success, the industry can better align technical performance with customer expectations.”
For engineers, the data underscores the importance of designing hardware, firmware, and maintenance strategies that perform consistently over years of operation, not just at launch. The findings point to interoperability, preventive maintenance, and long-term system resilience as engineering priorities for charging networks.
The study also highlights design traits of higher-performing charging sites, including multiple charging ports per location, longer cables to accommodate diverse vehicle architectures, streamlined payment processes, and site-level amenities.
The 2025 Reliability Report underscores the need for industry-wide collaboration to adopt more meaningful performance measures, standardize firmware deployment, and prioritize long-term system resilience.
This is the second consecutive year ChargerHelp! has published its reliability analysis. The full 2025 EV Charging Reliability Report is available from ChargerHelp!.
Filed Under: Charging, Technology News