Suggested Citation:
Nicholas, Michael A., Gil Tal, Justin Woodjack (2013) California Statewide Charging Survey: What Do Drivers Want?. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Journal Article UCD-ITS-RP-13-02

This paper presents the results of a survey of plug-in vehicle owners asking about the current use of charging infrastructure and needed chargers. Consumers are using the full range of the Leaf and 80% of customers have gone to 8% state of charge on their battery. More than 30% charge out of home regularly. For workplace, level 1 is available more often than level 2. For general out of home charging, level 1 is less used comprising 23% of locations identified by respondents. 93% of those commuting in Leafs are within round trip range of work. Correspondingly, there is a high use of workplace charging in the group with long commutes. 40% of Leaf owners have gone farther than the limits of their home territory, requiring charging to complete their tour. For the desire for infrastructure we see several trends. The main desire is for quick charging. Fast chargers are wanted at regional attractors such as downtowns, large malls, airports and other regional services. Quick charging connecting adjacent regions was also indicated by respondents. For Leaf customers, we see a median distance from home to quick chargers of 44 miles. The concept of EV territory was also explored. 40% of respondents more than doubled the area they could access in their EV with their charger choices.