Reliable EV charging depends on more than adding stations. Experts in the field share practical insights on uptime, pricing, compatibility, repairs, and access. These 19 considerations can help make charging simpler and more dependable for every driver.
- Require Battery Health Certificates
- Unify Emergency Tow Procedures
- Clarify Connector Compatibility
- Prioritize Network Upkeep and Compatibility
- Introduce Home Power Plans at Sale
- Publish Live Outage Recovery Details
- Unite Systems With Open Protocols
- Ensure Predictable Charge Rates
- Place Plugs at Daily Destinations
- Add Automatic Leak Shutoffs
- Convert Private Parking Into Shared Power
- Build Trailer-Friendly Pull-Through Bays
- Guarantee App-Free Session Starts
- Expand Overnight Plug-In Availability
- Match Deployment to Dwell Patterns
- Release Public Infrastructure Metrics
- Expose Repair Track Records
- Organize Peak-Demand Reservations
- Enforce Verified Uptime Accountability
Require Battery Health Certificates
From my specific area I want to mention something that is a sore point and a blank spot in the industry. And it’s the info about the EV’s battery. I think there should be a policy that would make it attached to every car like a mileage. What we see right now is that EV is the only car in the industry that doesn’t give you any idea about its most important part. You see some numbers on the dashboard, some mechanic may make some “diagnostics” and that’s practically nothing. Without this battery state info it’s really hard to say whether the car costs $12k or $3k. It means that the buyer already adds the risks to the price. And if there were something officially documented, every car on the road would have its real resale value.
Alice Coleman, Head of Public Relations, Auto Expert, EpicVIN
Unify Emergency Tow Procedures
I would standardise emergency recovery access across all electric vehicles. Tow operators currently encounter different procedures for placing EVs into neutral, isolating the high-voltage system and locating approved recovery points, with some controls becoming inaccessible when the 12-volt battery fails.
Every EV should have a clearly marked manual neutral override, accessible recovery points and a standard emergency information label. This would help towing professionals move disabled vehicles without damaging the drivetrain or battery pack. It would also reduce the time motorists spend stranded in dangerous locations and make recoveries safer for drivers, emergency services and tow operators.
Joshua Harrison, Founder, Underground Towing & Salvage
Clarify Connector Compatibility
If I could change one thing about EV infrastructure, it would be clearer home and destination charging standards so drivers are not guessing which cable and socket will work.
Mixed connectors and unclear site labelling still create friction after the car purchase. A simpler public and destination charging experience would do more for adoption than another headline about range. At EV Cable Hub we focus on the cable and charging accessories that make day-to-day charging less of a lottery for drivers and installers.
Jake Wardle, Founder, EV Cable Hub
Prioritize Network Upkeep and Compatibility
If I could change one thing about today’s electric vehicle infrastructure, it would be to make public charging more reliable, consistent and easier to use across different networks. Drivers should be able to find an available charger, know that it is working, use a simple payment method and charge their vehicle without dealing with multiple apps or compatibility issues. Australia is already moving toward stronger interoperability and reliability standards, but consistent maintenance and uptime should remain a major priority as the network expands.
From an engine and mechanical service perspective, infrastructure is only as good as its ongoing maintenance. A charger may look modern when installed, but without regular inspections, preventative maintenance and fast repair support, downtime can quickly affect drivers and damage confidence in EV ownership. Improving maintenance standards and creating stronger service networks would make EV travel more dependable, particularly for people travelling long distances or relying on public charging. In the long term, reliable infrastructure supported by skilled technical maintenance would make the transition to electric vehicles feel far more practical for everyday drivers.
Kayla Pearce, Team member – Mechanical, Elite Mechanical Power
Introduce Home Power Plans at Sale
The one thing I’d change is making home charging infrastructure a standard conversation at the point of EV purchase — not an afterthought six months later when the owner realizes their standard outlet isn’t cutting it.
I’ve installed smart EV chargers for homeowners in East Tennessee who had been driving electric vehicles for over a year, slow-charging overnight on a basic outlet, never knowing a Level 2 smart charger existed. The dealership never brought it up. That gap costs people real money in time and efficiency every single day.
Coming from a background where I’ve helped homeowners think through their entire energy picture — solar, backup power, charging — I can tell you that EV charging doesn’t live in a vacuum. When it’s paired with a solar system and a battery backup, the math gets genuinely interesting. Your car charges on energy your roof produced. That’s a fundamentally different conversation than just “where do I plug in.”
The fix isn’t a new product. It’s making whole-home energy planning part of the EV ownership conversation from day one, before someone drives off the lot.
Ernie Bussell, CEO, Your Home Solar
Publish Live Outage Recovery Details
I would make charger reliability and recovery information as important as the number of chargers installed. Every public charging location should show a verified live status, identify who owns the fault and provide a credible return-to-service time when equipment fails.
For regional drivers, an unavailable charger is not a minor inconvenience because the next practical option may be far away. Accurate status information lets people reroute before committing to the journey, while clear fault ownership creates pressure to restore service promptly. More charging points still matter, but infrastructure only builds confidence when drivers can rely on it. The real service is not the charger on the map; it is a successful charge when the customer arrives.
Darren Tredgold, General Manager, Independent Steel Company
Unite Systems With Open Protocols
The biggest breakthrough in electric vehicle infrastructure would come from the use of a standardized open-source software system which enables real-time Internet of Things connectivity between electric vehicles, charging networks, and power grids. As it stands presently, electric infrastructure is still present in proprietary blocks which is very much akin to what I see happening in my implementations of enterprise resource planning systems in factories. By having a standardized protocol in place, we will be able to ensure that the energy supplied can be optimized in a smart way.
In my work managing enterprise systems across factories like Detroit, Stuttgart, and Chennai, I have seen the effect that data visibility has on production. In case of EV infrastructure, it means that chargers will no longer be just devices converting energy to be transferred into vehicles, they will be transformed into IoT devices. The connection of these systems will allow predictability in operation providing a possibility for preventive maintenance and thus freeing EV chargers from the huge amount of downtime they now have. With proper implementation this setup may provide an opportunity of creating a smart grid since modern technologies of regulating the energy speed of each charger will make the network operational and enable the grid to pull energy back from vehicles and avoid blackouts.
Standardization is a key solution to the change management issue faced while deploying national infrastructure. When hardware producers and software developers agree upon data communication standards, they can concentrate on the process of optimizing energy distribution.
Girish Songirkar, Delivery Manager, Enterprise Software Engineering, Arionerp
Ensure Predictable Charge Rates
Uniform and consistent charging rate no matter where you are. Nowadays, the main issue is not the number of charging stations, but rather, the fact that every charging station offers so many different charging speeds, making it impossible for customers to plan their trips accordingly.
The principle that I would apply here is the following – unpredictability kills people’s willingness faster than the speed of the charging process ever could. People tend to put up with a system that works decently well over one that is sometimes great and frequently not so great. If charging times were predictable, people wouldn’t be feeling range anxiety, which is much more than what one would get from an increase in the number of charging stations. It reminds me of my experience in developing software systems.
Kevin Baragona, Founder, Deep AI
Place Plugs at Daily Destinations
I’m a GM World Class Technician — which includes EV certification — with 20+ years in dealership service and four years owning my own shop. I don’t have infrastructure fixes so much as what customers actually tell me.
EVs are excellent if you have a short commute and can charge overnight at home or at work. Without a fast charger at home, usability drops off a cliff. On the 120V cord that comes with the car, charging one back up from very low can take weeks.
The fix isn’t more superchargers in retail lots — nobody wants to spend an hour in an Aldi parking lot. Put chargers where people already stop: the park where you run, the restaurant where you eat. Incentivize townships and small businesses to add one or two and ownership starts making sense for people without a garage.
Technically, my number one complaint in Buffalo is winter range. Try explaining to a customer that a cold battery doesn’t work as well — and that remote starting with the heat and seat heaters running is basically running a giant toaster off your battery. Yes, your range drops. That improves as battery tech does.
JARED FARINO, Owner, HowAffordable
Add Automatic Leak Shutoffs
I would make monitored water-leak detection with automatic shutoff standard for home EV charging installations. From my work in landscaping and irrigation I have seen how small leaks do a lot of damage before people notice them. Making leak detection standard would protect electrical equipment and property, and insurers are already starting to support these systems and related offers. The value is simple: catch the problem early, stop the water fast, and turn a major claim into a small repair.
Gregory Hair, Owner, Landscaper, SLIDE Living
Convert Private Parking Into Shared Power
Stop putting chargers where cars stop and start putting them where cars sit.
Public charging has largely been built on a petrol-station mental model: a place you divert to, wait at, and leave. That suits a highway. It suits almost nothing about how a car is actually used, which is parked roughly 95 per cent of the time, mostly in the same handful of places.
The change I would make is to treat off-street parking as the charging network rather than a competitor to it. Apartment residents and anyone without a driveway are the group being quietly locked out of electric vehicles, and the answer for them is not another rapid charger on a forecourt, it is access to a neighbour’s garage that already has power running to it and sits empty all day.
We run a peer-to-peer parking marketplace, and the interesting thing about that inventory is that a large part of it is attached to a house with a meter box. Turning a fraction of that into shared overnight charging would add more usable capacity than any public rollout at a fraction of the cost, and it needs regulation and metering far more than it needs concrete.
Daniel Battaglia, Founder & CEO, Parksy.com
Build Trailer-Friendly Pull-Through Bays
I would make pull-through charging bays the default at highway and high-volume sites, with enough turning space for trailers, wheelchair lifts, and vehicles that cannot safely reverse.
Installations often treat charging as a parking-lot afterthought. Drivers towing equipment can block traffic while maneuvering, and an attempt to back into a space can create conflict between vehicles and pedestrians. Pull-through geometry would reduce avoidable movements while allowing motorists to use a site without improvised parking. Better design lowers the chance that poor visibility or a crowded lot turns a charging stop into an injury event.
Reid Breitman, Personal Injury Lawyer, Kuzyk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers
Guarantee App-Free Session Starts
I would require every public charger to offer a dependable, app-free way to start a session, with a posted price and a working customer-support contact at the equipment. A charging stop should not fail because a phone has died, a network is down, or a driver cannot create an account in a poorly lit lot.
This is also a safety issue. Drivers facing failed payment may remain in unsafe locations or continue with too little charge. I would require operators to log failed access attempts, which can explain why someone stayed. In litigation, conduct is judged by choices available then, not choices imagined later. Reliable access makes decisions safer.
Chrissy Grigor, Personal Injury Lawyer & Founder, Grigor Law Injury & Car Accident Lawyers
Expand Overnight Plug-In Availability
If I could change one thing about EV infrastructure it would be wider, reliable charging at the places vehicles sleep or park for long periods, such as event venues, accommodation and homes. Predictable overnight or on-site charging would stop every trip from becoming a complex planning exercise. I always advise mapping where the vehicle will sleep and whether you can charge there before choosing a car, and having that charging available would make that advice much easier to follow. This change would reduce downtime and let performers focus on their work instead of on charging logistics.
Callum Gracie, Professional Event DJ, DJ Callum Gracie
Match Deployment to Dwell Patterns
Public charging should be planned around dwell patterns, not simply traffic counts. The largest gap is often for people without private parking, whose charging decisions are shaped by overnight access, workplace schedules, and the risk of returning to an occupied station. More chargers in high-visibility retail locations do not automatically solve that operational problem.
I would require planning decisions to use anonymized demand data alongside housing type, shift work, and dwell time. That would move investment toward places where a vehicle can charge without adding an errand. The improvement matters because adoption becomes feasible for renters and lower-mileage households, while operators gain steadier utilization instead of relying on destination traffic.
Dawood Bukhari, CEO, Digital Web Solutions
Release Public Infrastructure Metrics
I would publish a common, public dataset showing charger outages, wait times, pricing, and utilization by location. Drivers, cities, and investors currently need a clearer picture of where the network is strong and where it repeatedly falls short.
Open performance data would improve decisions at every level. Drivers could choose reliable stops, planners could identify underserved neighborhoods, and operators could see where maintenance or expansion is most urgent. It would also prevent success from being judged solely by the number of installed connectors. Infrastructure should be evaluated by whether people can use it when needed, at a reasonable cost, without confusion. Better information would create accountability, and accountability would make the entire charging ecosystem more dependable.
Brian Hansen, President, Rocket Pilots
Expose Repair Track Records
I would make repair performance visible to the public, not just charger counts. Infrastructure announcements often focus on how many ports have been installed, but a driver experiences only the ports that work at the moment they arrive.
Every charging location should display a simple reliability history, including outage frequency, average repair time, and the percentage of successful sessions. I would treat those measures as seriously as availability claims because they reveal whether investment is producing dependable transportation capacity. Public reliability data would reward operators that maintain equipment well, help municipalities identify weak locations, and give fleet managers better planning inputs. Most importantly, it would shift attention from installation milestones to the everyday trust required for people to depend on electric vehicles.
Sherif Koussa, CEO, Software Secured
Organize Peak-Demand Reservations
The change I would prioritize is a common reservation and queue-management system for high-demand charging locations. Uncertainty around waiting time creates avoidable stress, encourages drivers to charge longer than necessary, and makes station utilization less efficient during busy periods.
A fair system could show estimated waits, allow limited reservations, protect access for drivers with urgent range needs, and discourage vehicles from occupying spaces after charging ends. The goal is not to over-engineer every stop. It is to bring order to the moments when demand exceeds capacity. Better queue management would improve the experience immediately while giving operators evidence for where expansion is genuinely needed. It also turns a frustrating, invisible problem into measurable operational data that can guide smarter decisions and more trustworthy network growth.
Marc Bishop, Director, Wytlabs
Enforce Verified Uptime Accountability
The improvement I would prioritize is a maintenance standard with consequences. Charging operators should be measured on completed, successful charging sessions, not on the number of ports they announce or the capital they deploy. A connector that accepts a payment but fails halfway through a session should count as unavailable, and repeated failures should trigger public performance notices.
In search, visibility without a useful destination damages trust. Electric infrastructure has the same problem. A broken charger on a critical corridor can distort a driver’s view of an entire network. Tying permits, incentives, and expansion rights to verified reliability would make maintenance a growth strategy, not an afterthought.
Jason Hennessey, CEO, Hennessey Digital
