It's time for automakers to take EV charging seriously or risk missing out

• Car companies have largely depended on other companies to provide their customers with charging.
• But unreliability with public electric-car charging has been a turn-off for many drivers.

Automakers need to realize how critical it is to take public electric vehicle charging into their own hands.

Over the past several years, with relatively low EV adoption rates in the US, car companies have been so focused on developing powertrains and cars that they've largely pushed the onus of charging elsewhere.

They've depended on third-party charging firms like ChargePoint, EVgo, and Electrify America to provide EV buyers with public plugs. Many automakers even offer their EV customers free charging through partnerships with these networks.

The exception, of course, is Tesla, which built its own Supercharger fast network across the country, quickly marking one of the automaker's most differentiating features. Tesla already operates more than 40,000 stations across the globe.

Only recently have the other auto companies seemingly considered Tesla's advantage and recognized how crucial it is that they get more hands-on in the charging game. Plus, per JD Power, 1 in 5 attempts by drivers to charge their EV failed last year — not a good sign if you're an automaker that has spent billions of dollars to electrify.

Their near-exclusive reliance on third parties might not cut it anymore, especially as customers and prospective EV buyers today conflate their charging experience with their experience with the vehicle itself.

"It is curious as to why we haven't seen the automakers get together to fund a charging network for the US market," Loren McDonald, CEO of market analysis firm EVAdoption, told Insider. "The short answer might be that the automakers believe they achieved a similar result simply by partnering with Electrify America and offering free hours of charging with the purchase of a new EV.

"But if so, as we are seeing in the marketplace and with Tesla's domination in both EV sales and charger availability and reliability," McDonald added, "this was a hugely flawed decision and mindset."

Consumers think the problem is a big one

Automakers need customers to go electric, and yet have long sent them the way of often non-functioning or unreliable networks over which the automakers have little control.

For EV buyers attracted to brands with free public charging deals, the promises don't always seem to live up to expectations. If reliability isn't the problem, location or payment issues stand in the way.

The argument could be made that a majority of EV charging can be done at home — but many prospective EV buyers live in multi-family buildings without access to a garage plug. And even just the perception of a lack of charging is a barrier: 46% of US respondents to a recent Deloitte consumer study cited that as a hurdle to their going electric.

"They're still thinking that, 'I don't see infrastructure, therefore it must not be around. I'm a little nervous about where I'm going to charge this vehicle,'" EY Americas mobility sector leader Steve Patton told Insider.

One estimate from S&P Global mobility suggests the US needs to grow its charging infrastructure more than eight times by 2030, requiring 2.13 million Level 2 chargers (providing anywhere from 12 to 30 miles of range per hour) and 172,000 Level 3 public chargers (which take 15-20 minutes to charge an EV to 80%) by that time.

Automakers are racing to chip into that

GM is installing 40,000 of its "Ultium Charge 360" chargers across the US and Canada. Ford, too, is developing a 75,000-charger Blue Oval network. Mercedes is launching its own version of a network that will place more than 10,000 chargers across North America, Europe, China, and other key markets in the coming years. Rivian says it will have both a Rivian owners-only Adventure network and a public Waypoints network.

Taking a page out of Tesla's playbook, and even mimicking what other regions have done, will be critical for automakers. In Europe, for instance, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, and Volkswagen formed Ionity, a charging station network joint venture. EVs made up about 14% of new car sales last year, more than double that of the US.

There's a lot of catching up to do.

"The cost and infrastructure unavailability, the infrastructure unreliability, and the time burdens will continue to be significant barriers to adoption," said Patrick Anderson, CEO of consultancy Anderson Economic Group.