Average Reliability by Network and Equipment Click to Enlarge

The numbers are in. Tesla takes the crown as the most reliable rapid charging network in Tennessee. The 3 “supercharger” locations in Tennessee are all less than 1 year old, so the equipment is brand new which partially explains the 10 out of 10 reliability rating. To their credit Tesla do build, install, own and manage their equipment which results in a better run network.

eVgo have done well in Tennessee, garnering a rating of 8.76 out of 10. eVgo took on units previously installed by Nissan at Nashville area MAPCO gas stations. eVgo’s equipment has already been through two years of Tennessee weather. The same brand units at Nissan owned locations fair worse achieving a rating of 7.68 despite being the same age. This means eVgo are being effective at  keeping the aging units working reliably, better than Nissan themselves.

Blink have the most rapid charging locations in Tennessee, however they came in dead last in terms of reliability achieving a rating of only 5.11. Blink CHAdeMo stations are the oldest. In addition Blink Networks installer and former owner Ecotality went bankrupt and Car Charging Group bought the assets. Car Charging group got off to a good start repairing many ailing units in Tennessee, but they too are struggling to keep their financial heads above water and reliability of the network has suffered as a result.

Location, Location, Location

The location of the Rapid  Charge Units did reveal some interesting patterns

Reliability By Host and Equipment

I broke out Nissan Dealer Locations from Nissan Corporate Owned Facilities. Dealers often get a lot of bad press for blocking the Rapid Charge Units with new or service vehicles and not maintaining the equipment adequately. The data reveals they fair much better than Nissan Corporate facilities, the dealers achieving a rating of 8.45, very comparable to the eVgo network. Well done Nissan Dealers!!

Nissan corporate has had chronic reliability issues with unit at the Smyrna Factory Visitor Center where the LEAF is assembled. Ironically if you wish to visit the center you may want to leave your LEAF at home if you depend on a charge there.

Signet units at Nissan locations are showing better reliability compared to the Sumitomo’s. This maybe explained by the fact the Signet’s are relatively new and have yet to show signs of aging.

The Green Hills YMCA is the only non Tesla host to achieve a perfect 10. There is only 1 Rapid Charge unit at YMCA’s in Tennessee. There are other locations at other hosts that get 10, but other locations owned by the same host lower the average for the host overall.

Cracker Barrel locations fair poorly. This has less to do with the host and more to do with the ailing Blink network and equipment.

How I got the numbers

Plugshare has a very complete record of EV charging locations. Plugshare users give each charging experience they record on the Plugshare mobile app with a simple “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down”. Plugshare aggregate the number of thumbs up and thumbs down over time and their ratings algorithm derives a rating on a scale between 1 and 10. 10 being best. A thumbs down maybe due to faulty equipment, but it could also be due to parking spaces being blocked or units being locked up at night and weekends.

Reliability ratings are therefore is a combination of equipment reliability and equipment availability.

To compile the Tennessee Rapid Charge charts I present here, I recorded the rating for every Tennessee Rapid Charge location and put the information into an Excel spreadsheet. I then created pivot charts to present the data in a more meaningful manner. Feel free to download the spreadsheet and slice the data any way your heart is content with. If you see a notable piece of information let me know and I may update this post with additional insights.