What EV Drivers Actually Hate About Public Charging — and What's Fixable
If you read r/electricvehicles and r/evcharging for long enough, you notice something: the complaints about public charging are remarkably stable. A thread from 2020 reads almost exactly like one from last month. New drivers discover the same potholes the veterans hit years ago, and the veterans show up in the comments to say "yep, still broken."
We went through ~40 of these threads spanning 2019 to 2026 to map what actually frustrates people — not what surveys say, but what drivers type out in anger at 7pm in a Walmart parking lot. Here's the ranked list, and an honest accounting of which problems better information can fix and which ones can't.
1. Chargers that are simply broken
This is the number-one complaint by a wide margin. Blank screens, error messages, dead connectors, broken cable latches, whole sites offline for days. The thread titles say it all: "Why Are So Many Public EV Chargers Broken?", "Why are SO many charging stations always broken?".
This isn't just vibes. A peer-reviewed reliability study of open public DC fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area found 22.7% were non-functioning at any given time — blank or unresponsive screens, payment failures, charge-initiation failures, network failures, and broken connectors — with a further ~5% whose cables were too short to reach the car. Roughly one in four, unusable.
Can better data fix it? Not the hardware itself — only the owner or network can repair a unit. But visibility is half the battle: if you know before you drive there that the last three people couldn't get it to start, you route around it. That's a real, addressable gap.
2. The payment and app circus
The second-loudest complaint, and arguably the most maddening in day-to-day use: every network wants its own app, its own account, its own preloaded balance. Threads like "I finally get why people hate charging apps" and the perennial "Why don't chargers just take a credit card?" capture it. As recently as this year, drivers are still asking why paying is "kind of a mess".
The sub-gripes: re-authenticating every single session, $1 authorization holds, minimum balance top-ups, sessions that just won't start. "Plug & Charge" is the widely-hoped-for cure, slowly rolling out.
Can better data fix it? Honestly, no — the payment stack belongs to the networks. The most a directory can do is tell you which payment methods a site actually accepts so you're not surprised.
3. "The app said it was working" — the data-trust problem
This is the one we care about most, because it's a top-three frustration that nobody has solved. Every charging app re-aggregates the same operator-reported feeds, so when the operator's backend says "online," every app repeats it — even if the cable is cut, the connector's stuck, or the screen is dead.
A driver nailed the root cause in a December 2025 thread titled "Why do EV charging apps keep lying about availability?!": "most of these apps only show what the charging operator reports. If the backend says 'online,' the app believes it. Broken cable, stuck connector, payment glitch… none of that shows up." Another driver described arriving at a charger that read "available" but was actually disconnected from data — it only worked out by luck.
Can better data fix it? Yes — this is exactly where ground-truth from other drivers beats operator-reported status. More on what we built below.
4. ICEing and blocked stalls
Gas cars parked in charging spots, EVs camping past 80%, people leaving their car plugged in long after the session ends. It's emotional enough that r/evcharging banned the drama to a separate sub. But it's real friction: you plan a stop, you arrive, and the stall is physically unusable.
Can better data fix it? Partially. You can't stop someone from ICEing a spot, but recent reports of frequent blocking are a useful signal — some sites are chronically ICEd and worth avoiding at peak times.
5. Not enough working stalls — the queue
"Wait time at chargers", "how often are all chargers in use?", drivers stuck two hours waiting for a free plug. Free or promotional sites get swamped; rideshare drivers and line-cutters make it worse.
Can better data fix it? Somewhat — knowing a site only has two working ports and is usually full changes whether you stop there.
6. Speed that doesn't match the sticker
"Why isn't my car charging at maximum power on a 'fast' charger?" comes up constantly. Power-sharing cabinets, the charging curve, cold batteries, and high state-of-charge all conspire to deliver far less than the advertised kW.
Can better data fix it? Partly education, partly reporting — if drivers consistently report a "350 kW" site delivering 150, that's worth knowing.
7. Cost
$0.48/kWh in the Northeast, peak-hour demand charges, idle fees, DC fast charging creeping toward gas-equivalent cost. A frequent complaint, though more of a market problem than an information one.
The honest scorecard
| Frustration | Can better data help? |
|---|---|
| Broken hardware | Indirectly — surface it faster, can't fix it |
| Payment/app friction | Barely — networks own this |
| "App lied about availability" | Yes — this is the wedge |
| ICEing / blocked stalls | Partially — flag chronic sites |
| Queues / not enough stalls | Somewhat |
| Speed below advertised | Partially |
| Cost | No — it's a market issue |
The pattern is clear: the data-trust problem (#3), plus the discoverability and "is this site actually any good" questions around it, is the part that better information genuinely fixes. We're not going to repair anyone's hardware or rewrite a network's payment flow. But we can make the gap between "what the app says" and "what you'll find" smaller.
What we built: structured driver reports
Most directories let you leave a star rating and a paragraph. Stars are noise — a 3.5-star average doesn't tell you whether the charger will work when you get there.
So on SpotCharge, reviews now capture the specific, observable facts behind these frustrations as quick optional tags:
- Did it work? — Worked / Worked with issues / Didn't work
- Was the listing accurate? — location, connectors, kW
- Charge speed vs. expected
- How was paying? — tap/card / app required / had trouble
- Were stalls available? — open / had to wait / all full
- Was a stall blocked or ICE'd?
Each is one tap, all optional, and we roll them up into a plain-language "What drivers report" summary on every location page — raw counts, never a made-up score. If the last eight drivers said it worked and one said the listing's connector was wrong, you see exactly that. No stars to decode.
It directly attacks #3 — the "the app said it was online" problem — by putting recent, structured, human ground-truth next to the operator-reported data. And it quietly helps with #1, #4, #5, and #6 along the way.
It's not a silver bullet. We can't make a dead charger come back to life or force a network to take your credit card. But the single most common thing that ruins an EV driver's afternoon — driving to a charger that the app swore was fine — is exactly the thing a little honest, structured driver reporting can prevent.
If you've charged somewhere recently, find the location and leave a quick report. The next driver who pulls in low and stressed will thank you.