Abstract:

This report assesses the user-friendliness of the existing public charging infrastructure networks for electric passenger cars in Canada, Europe, and the United States, focusing on three key factors: availability, reliability, and interoperability.

The analysis finds that there are significant geographic disparities in public charging infrastructure deployment in Europe, the United States, and Canada. These disparities are sometimes, but not always, correlated with income, unemployment rate, and share of people of color in the overall population. Governments have adopted various policies to target disparities in public charging deployment, including targeted funding to undersupplied areas.

To address issues concerning charger reliability, some governments are implementing uptime and successful charge rate requirements for public charging, which are enforced through reporting requirements, penalties, and data transparency measures. Tax incentives are also provided in some jurisdictions for meeting uptime requirements.