Home EV Charging Is Getting Expensive and Confusing – EQ Mag
EV owners are less satisfied with their home charging systems. Plus, EV startups are scrambling for cash, and Nissan workers in Tennessee might unionize.
Electric vehicle charging at home still has a ways to go, Audi expects car prices to come down a smidgen and technicians at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee plant are facing a big union decision. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, March 16, 2023.
1st Gear: Home Charging Isn’t Looking Too Great, Either
We know that public EV charging isn’t anywhere near as simple or reliable as it should be, but what of home charging solutions? J.D. Power recently conducted its third annual survey, asking EV owners to rate their satisfaction with their charging systems at home. And wouldn’t you know it, the score actually dropped this year, due to “high costs of charging, slow charging speed and limited charging education,” per Automotive News:
It’s not like these customers’ previously-installed equipment got worse over the course of one year. What’s changed is energy prices. Scheduling charging times can be very advantageous for EV owners, because it allows them to top up their electric cars during off-peak hours, when they’ll benefit from the lowest rates. But if they aren’t aware of that, it does them no good.
The survey also suggests that more than two thirds of EV owners use a mounted Level 2 home charger providing up to 240 volts, rather than a standard wall outlet. Perhaps not surprisingly, Tesla owners reported the highest satisfaction with their home charging solutions. A variety of other companies that manufacture charging systems are present in the ranking, though it’s worth noting that Ford, Electrify America and GM brought up the wrong end of the list.
2nd Gear: Ford Dealers Choose Their EV Paths
Speaking of Ford and its EVs, last fall the automaker introduced a tiered system for its dealer network that required an initial investment and made stipulations about on-site charging equipment and sales practices if they wanted to offer electric cars in the future.
In total, 1,920 dealerships signed up for this program out of the gate. However, the latest numbers indicate almost 30 have backed out. It was actually the higher-priced tier that shed the most participants, while the lower-priced one picked up in terms of interest after changes Ford recently implemented that have made the more affordable option more attractive. From Automotive News:
In other news, groups of Ford dealers in North Carolina, New York and Illinois are thoroughly unsatisfied with all of this and have filed legal petitions against it, because it requires them to learn and do new things:
You can’t just take away haggling like that! That’s their shtick!
3rd Gear: Audi Will Give the Low-ish End Another Shot
After rumors emerged that Mercedes-Benz might be axing the less-expensive end of its range, and Audi’s top brass commented in recent years that there’s just not enough money in small cars, it started to feel like the entry-level luxury car was becoming a thing of the past. Now that the supply chain is beginning to stabilize, a glimmer of hope has emerged. Things will never quite go back to the way they were before the pandemic, but like BMW, Audi has decided it doesn’t need to jack up prices anymore. From Reuters:
Right now the cheapest Audi EV is the Q4 E-Tron, which starts a shade under $50,000. It’s…fine.
4th Gear: Tennessee Nissan Workers Look to Unionize
Technicians at Nissan’s Smyrna plant have an important decision facing them today. They’ll vote whether to organize a small union, something that’s been a long and difficult time coming at the facility. From Reuters:
There’s never a not-creepy way to be told “nobody will ever love you like I do” but this is a new one I hadn’t anticipated. Great work Nissan. More seriously, good luck to the bargaining unit. As Reuters concludes, the automaker could easily challenge the verdict and therefore mire the formation of a contract, but hey — you have to start somewhere.
5th Gear: Live Fast, Burn Cash
I don’t have to tell you there are a zillion EV startups out there with questionable futures, but a story that’s worth reading courtesy of Automotive News puts into perspective just how bad things are at the present for pretty much everyone that isn’t Tesla, Rivian or Lucid. Canoo (precious Canoo) and Faraday Future have half a month’s worth of cash on hand. Nikola and Lordstown, less than seven months. It’s make or break time.
There’s more detail in the full article of course, but if there’s an EV brand you haven’t thought about in a while and you’re curious how its holding up today, chances are, unfortunately, that it’s in here.
Neutral: A Golf By Any Other Name
This thing is probably going to morph into the ID.Golf, Volkswagen’s entry-level EV. And I think it looks good, mainly because it looks a lot like an existing Golf. I sort of wish the back end was a little more original and not quite so reminiscent of the Ioniq 5’s, but the heckblendes are too powerful.
Source: jalopnik
