The percentage of automobile shoppers who say they are “very likely” to consider an electric vehicle (EV) for their next purchase or lease declined to 24.4% through the end of February 2024, the fourth consecutive monthly decline in EV consideration, according to the J.D. Power 2024 US Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study.

Meanwhile, the percentage of shoppers who say they are “very unlikely” to consider an EV has climbed to 22.2% during the same period.

This is the fourth consecutive monthly decline in EV consideration and the lowest level recorded since J.D. Power started tracking the trend in June 2022.

The top reason for not considering an EV, cited by 52% of consumers, is lack of charging station availability. According to the study, satisfaction with public charger availability among non-Tesla owners is 32 points (on a 1,000-point scale) lower than a year ago.

Tesla has been the sole EV manufacturer to deliver a consistently positive public charging experience through its proprietary charging network. Soon, EVs from more than a dozen different manufacturers will be compatible with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), and if that positive customer experience holds, we could see a reshuffling of the ranks of most popular EV brands as models from BMW and Rivian start to impress owners with a stand-out customer experience.

The majority (52%) of consumers who say they would not consider an EV for their next vehicle purchase or lease cite lack of charging station availability as a key reason for their decision. Other charging-related concerns, such as time required to charge (45%), limited driving distance per charge (43%), inability to charge at home or work (37%) and power outage/grid concerns (33%) are all among the top drivers of EV rejection.

EV customer experience with the public charging network and widespread media reports about EV owners struggling to charge their vehicles in harsh winter conditions is exacerbating these concerns. Among mass market EV owners, satisfaction with public charger availability declined 32 points during the past year.

J.D. Power also found that the percentage of EV rejecters citing “inadequate performance in extreme temperatures” rose 8 percentage points in February from January—an indication of the influence news reports of “Chicago’s EV Apocalypse” likely had on consumer sentiment.

Tesla has consistently earned significantly higher customer satisfaction scores than rival EV manufacturers when it comes to using public charging networks. According to J.D. Power data, overall satisfaction with DC fast charging (Level 3) among Tesla vehicle owners in 2023 was 738, while the industry average for all other brands is just 569. With 17 automotive corporations now having signed agreements with Tesla to use their NACS standard and many non-Tesla vehicles soon-to-be compatible with the Tesla network, the big question is: Will it work?

If the plan does work, non-Tesla brands could see a significant bump in consumer demand, J.D. Power suggests. The BMW i4, Rivian R1T and Rivian R1S recently took the top three spots in the J.D. Power 2024 US Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study, significantly outperforming Tesla in key areas such as satisfaction with vehicle quality and reliability.

However, like other non-Tesla models, these vehicles dramatically underperformed Tesla in satisfaction with the availability of public charging. If that problem were to improve substantially with greater access to fast charging through usage of Tesla’s Supercharger network, we may see a significant change in the competitive dynamics with the ownership experience among EV models.

This J.D. Power E-Vision Intelligence Report is based on data and insights from the J.D. Power EV Index, the J.D. Power EV Retail Share Forecast, the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study, the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Public Charging Study and the J.D. Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration (EVC) Study. The J.D. Power EV Index is an analytics tool to benchmark the growing EV market in the United States. It tracks millions of data points aggregated into six categories—interest, availability, adoption, affordability, infrastructure and experience—to evaluate the progress to parity of EVs with gas-powered vehicles in the U.S. Each month, the J.D. Power electric vehicle practice will analyze these data points, and others to spotlight emerging trends and important shifts in consumer sentiment that are helping to define the fast-moving EV marketplace.