Electric car drivers have many more options for public charging than they did even a year ago.
Charging networks from Tesla's Superchargers to EVGo and VW's Electrify America are dramatically increasing the number of Level 3 fast chargers across the country. Level 2 chargers are also becoming more prevalent too.
As the variety of options expands, we decided to ask our followers on Twitter what type of public chargers are most useful to them.
What kind of public electric-car charger do you use most often?
— Green Car Reports (@GreenCarReports) June 25, 2018
Amid the rollout of Level 3 fast chargers, we found that the largest group of our electric-car driving followers still rely on standard Level 2 fast-chargers to gain a few more miles while they're out and about.
Among the answers respondents could choose, 47 percent said they rely most often on Level 2 chargers.
CHECK OUT: Twitter poll results: More electric cars get charged at work than at public chargers
That's almost double the number of Tesla drivers who rely most often on Superchargers, at 26 percent.
Roughly one in five respondents, or 18 percent, indicated they rely on CHAdeMO fast chargers, and 9 percent who depend on newer CCS Combo public chargers.
Although Teslas can also use any public Level 2 charger with an adapter (or one of Tesla's growing network of Level 2 Destination Chargers), the answers these latter groups of respondents gave is largely dependent on what kind of car they drive.
Nissan Leafs are the most common electric car that relies on CHAdeMO chargers, although there are others, including the Kia Soul EV. The BMW i3 and the Chevy Bolt EV with optional fast-charge capability are the most common cars to use the CCS Combo technology.
Most new public fast-charge installations will include separate cords for cars that require CHAdeMO and CCS plugs.
Remember that our Twitter poll results are not scientifically representative because of low sample size and because respondents are self selected.
We plan to follow up on this poll in future weeks to gauge how dependable each of these types of chargers are for our readers, and if any stand out as particularly reliable or unreliable. Stay tuned for more questions and more answers.
