Driving an electric car brings forth a lot of fascination: The attention for current electric cars is not only ­fueled by eco friendliness, but also by the driving experience. In order to keep up with the acceleration of a medium-class plug-n-go car, quite a lot of a combuster‘s horsepower would be required. And even range is not a ­real problem any more – most current e-cars reach about 400 kilometers with one battery charge (according to the WLTP testing standard). At the same time, the network of ­charge stations is expanding, so that a ­suitable charging ­opportunity can be found on each route without con­siderable detours. In addition, the ­increasing spread of “High Power Charging“ (HPC) in vehicles as well as in the charge points makes sure that ­charge stops can remain within half an hour.

Teething problems with charging electric cars 

This was the good news. Still, drivers of e-cars frequently have annoying experiences as well: By no means every charging station can be used with the supply of charge apps and contracts at hand. The actual prices are not always clear. Not ­every charging spot is sufficiently marked by signposts, is adequately sized or is covered. And drivers who want to visit ­a ­restroom, a ­restaurant or a shop ­during their charging breaks, often have to walk ­there over ­distances of a couple of ­hundred meters.

Many topics which early adopters of electromobility struggle with bring up memories of the early days of cellular communications – such as vastly nontransparent ­pricing and  technically shaky roaming (the use of “foreign“ charging stations with one‘s existing e-mobility tariff).

Charging infrastructure under the microscope – just like cellular networks

Thus, it was an obvious choice for connect and its network testing partner umlaut to carefully examine the quality of electric charging stations in an elaborate network test. After all, we know from our own expe­rience: There are big differences between the providers who are active in this marketplace regarding charging experience, technical features, payment options and price transparency.

In our test, we consider another analogy to cellular networks: As usual for smartphone tariffs, in the world of charging infrastructure, there are also network operators (charge point operators, in short CPOs) as well as service providers (electro mobility providers, in short EMPs). The former supply charging stations and networks, the latter take care of apps and payment procedures – although some vendors such as EnBW are engaging in both ­areas and some charge point operators such als Fastned provide their own apps. Thus, we have divided and evaluated the candidates of our test into these two categories.

As a start, we considered the three currently most popular electro mobility providers and six large charge point operators. In doing so, we ­have focused on “High Power Charging“ – the fast refilling of suitably equipped e-cars with a wattage of at least 150 kW. The reason is that long distance drivers prefer HPC as their most viable option for charging their electric cars en route. For the tests and assessments, umlaut‘s team conducted test drives with two electric cars (see below). A detailed description of our methodology can be found here. But now, raise the curtains for the results of our first charging network test.

Our test cars

For our tests, we used two of the currently most attractive electric vehicles.

Mercedes EQC 400

”The Mercedes among the electric cars“ is based on the ­volume model GLC, but was ­optimized in many details for electric driving.
The first all-electric from the Swabian car maker offers four-wheel drive and a lot of driving convenience. Its user interface MBUX (Mercedes Benz User ­Experience) is among the finest which can be found in the marketplace in terms of connectivity and infotainment operation. In the EQC, it was extended with the management of the 80 kWh battery, offering a range of 445 km (WLTP) including the planning of charging stops. connect awarded 423 of 500 points for the overall package (grade good). You can real the full connectivity test of the Mercedes EQC here.

Porsche Taycan 4S

Conclusion

Experienced e-car drivers will probably not be surprised by the results of this test: The apps from EnBW and Maingau as well as the charge points from Ionity and EnBW rightly have a good reputation. Still, both the winners of this test as well as as those providers who received the grade “good“ still show room for improvement. This is even more applicable to the candidates who did not score quite as high. But as we have done for many years in the area of mobile communications, we also want to contribute with our charging network test to ­positively affecting the development in the marketplace to the benefit of the users.

We at connect and umlaut are a little proud about our first installment in this area. But considerations what we could still improve in the methodology and scope of out tests are already on their way. So stay tuned – as “after our charging network test“ is at the same time “before our charging network test“.