Charger uptime is the share of time a charging port is available and working. Broken or offline chargers are the most common complaint among EV drivers, so uptime has become a central measure of charging quality.
Federal rules for chargers funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program require each port to maintain an average annual uptime above 97%, and similar targets now appear in state programs and private contracts. Uptime definitions matter: some exclude outages caused by the utility, vandalism or scheduled maintenance.
Getting to high uptime
- Remote monitoring. Networked chargers report faults so they can be fixed before drivers report them.
- Service contracts. Response and repair times written into the agreement, with spare parts stocked.
- Physical protection. Bollards, cable management and lighting to reduce damage.
- Software and payment. Many failures are communication or payment errors, not hardware.
- Reporting. Port-level uptime reports, with the definition stated.
The Parkonomics view
A charger that does not work is worse than no charger, because it sends a driver away angry. Buy uptime, not just hardware.
Related terms: Charger, Charging Port, Charging Utilization, OCPP, Software as a Service