The Pros and Cons of Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

I run a painting company in Rhode Island, so our work vans are still gas-powered — but I’ve been testing an EV for estimate appointments and job site visits around Newport County. What caught me completely off guard was how charging station etiquette (or lack of it) mirrors job site behavior.

I showed up to charge before a commercial walk-through in Providence and found someone’s fully charged Tesla just sitting there while they grabbed lunch. Cost me 40 minutes and nearly made me late to a $15K bid presentation. Now I always build in a 30-minute buffer for estimate days, the same way we account for paint dry time between coats.

The unexpected upside? Charging near project sites has become my version of neighborhood reconnaissance. While waiting at a station in Bristol, I walked two blocks and spotted three historic homes with peeling exteriors — ended up landing two exterior jobs just from door-knocking during that dead time. Our crew now jokes that my “charging tours” are better lead generation than our Google ads.

The real lesson from 20 years running jobs: any system that depends on shared resources (charging ports, job site parking, paint sprayer rentals) needs a backup plan. I keep a portable level 1 charger now the same way our trucks carry extra brushes — because waiting on someone else’s timeline kills your schedule.

I don’t drive an EV myself, but I run a multi-specialty dental practice in Pittston, PA, and we’ve been discussing adding charging stations to our parking lot. What stopped us was the liability question—if someone’s car has an issue while charging on our property, our insurance broker couldn’t give us a straight answer about coverage without adding a commercial rider that cost $1,800 annually.

The interesting benefit I’ve observed from patients who do charge at nearby stations: they’re more likely to show up on time or early. We had chronic late-show problems before, but patients using the Wegmans charger down the street now arrive 15–20 minutes early and actually keep their appointments. They’re already out with buffer time built in, so they’re not rushing from work or home.

One patient told me she schedules her six-month cleanings specifically around charging time—kills two birds with one stone. That got me thinking about the business angle differently. If we installed two stations, we could potentially reduce our no-show rate, which costs us about $200 per missed appointment. The math might actually work if it improves patient reliability, not just as a pure amenity.

We’ve observed significant inconsistency across public EV charging networks, creating both opportunities and challenges for businesses adopting electric fleets. Our marketing teams frequently travel between client locations, revealing how station reliability varies dramatically between urban centers and suburban areas. Hardware malfunctions and payment processing errors continue to plague even premium charging providers. The unexpected benefit emerged when our team began planning meetings around charging sessions, effectively turning downtime into productive collaboration opportunities.

We leverage charging station apps to forecast availability, though real-time data often proves inaccurate during peak periods. These technological limitations have pushed us to develop contingency routes and schedules for client visits across multiple regions. Our field teams now maintain detailed maps of reliable stations that offer amenities conducive to remote work while charging. The business case for expanded charging infrastructure becomes clearer as more companies transition to electric fleets, creating new marketing touchpoints at these emerging transportation hubs.

One unexpected benefit I noticed with public EV chargers is how much they force you to slow down in a good way. You end up batching errands, answering emails, or just taking a breather instead of treating every drive like a pit stop. The downside is reliability. Chargers that show as available but aren’t working, are painfully slow, or are iced by other cars can turn a simple stop into a mental tax. It taught me pretty quickly to plan charging like you plan airport time, with buffer and backups. Overall, public charging works best when you treat it as part of your routine, not an emergency fix. When expectations are realistic, the experience is way less frustrating.

Unexpected Benefits:

The biggest surprise wasn’t range anxiety—it was pace. When you’re forced to stop for 30-40 minutes, you actually stop. On road trips, I started wandering into places I’d normally zoom past. Found a tiny used bookstore in a strip mall next to an Electrify America in New Mexico. Bought a hardcover that still sits on my desk.

And weirdly, there’s community. You’re standing there waiting. So is another EV owner. You swap war stories—best apps, which stations are trash, back roads nobody knows. It’s this odd tribe that only exists in charging station parking lots.

Unexpected Drawbacks:

Reliability is a horror show. About 1 in 4 chargers I roll up to is broken, stuck in a boot loop, or “starting session” until the sun burns out. Lesson learned quick: never plan a stop with one charger as your only option.

Then there’s App Hell. ChargePoint, Electrify America, EVgo, IONITY—each demands its own login, its own card, its own janky UI. I’ve got six charging apps on my phone. Six. It’s almost funny.

And the nickel-and-diming. Some chargers hide inside paid parking garages. Some are at hotels that “require a minimum purchase.” You bleed out on small fees before you even plug in.

I run two restaurants in the Chicago suburbs, so I’m constantly thinking about logistics—getting supplies delivered, coordinating staff between our Buffalo Grove and Glen Ellyn locations, and managing the flow of fresh ingredients. We don’t have EVs in our fleet yet, but I’ve noticed something interesting about charging stations from a business owner’s perspective.

Several commercial charging stations have popped up near our Buffalo Grove location over the past year, and they’ve actually driven foot traffic our way. People waiting 20–30 minutes for their cars to charge need somewhere to go, and we’ve seen a noticeable uptick in weekday afternoon customers who mention they’re “just killing time while charging.” It’s become an unplanned marketing advantage—we didn’t choose our location for EV infrastructure, but it found us.

The drawback I’ve observed is more operational: delivery drivers using EVs have occasionally been late because they misjudged their range or hit charging delays. One of our produce suppliers switched part of their fleet to electric and had to reroute a Thursday morning delivery because their usual charging spot was occupied. It cost us an hour of prep time when we needed those ingredients for lunch service.

From real-world use and client feedback, the biggest benefit of public EV charging stations is convenience during longer trips. They reduce range anxiety and make EV ownership more practical beyond daily commuting. That said, reliability is the most common drawback. Chargers are often offline, limited to lower speeds than advertised, or blocked by other vehicles. Pricing can also vary widely, sometimes costing more than expected for a full charge.

What surprises many drivers is how much smoother ownership becomes once a dedicated home charger is installed. Charging overnight at consistent speeds removes uncertainty, protects the vehicle’s battery through correct load management, and avoids peak-time pricing. Public chargers are useful, but for day-to-day use, a professionally installed home system is far more predictable and efficient.

I’ll be honest—this isn’t my area of expertise since I spend most of my time dealing with canvas, tent stakes, and wood stoves rather than EVs. But I can share what our team has experienced while traveling to festivals nationwide with our glamping setups.

We’ve done events at Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and venues across the country, often hauling trailers full of tents and gear. A couple of our crew members drive EVs for personal transport to these sites. The biggest unexpected drawback they’ve mentioned is charging station reliability at rural festival venues—we’ve had team members arrive at a charging station in the middle of nowhere only to find it broken or offline, which created real anxiety about making it to the next town. One guy had to wait 45 minutes for another car to finish charging at a two-stall station near The Gorge Amphitheater because there was literally no other option within 60 miles.

The unexpected benefit? Several festival campgrounds are starting to add EV charging as an amenity, and our team has noticed they’re usually located near the nicer, quieter camping areas. It’s become a weird little perk for finding better campsites with actual infrastructure, which matters when you’re setting up 50+ tents in a weekend.