Many consumers are reconsidering electric vehicles with gas prices topping $4 per gallon in most of the country due to the ongoing war in Iran. But concerns about charging have prevented some shoppers from making the switch.
Car buyers have been telling pollsters for years that they have major concerns about the battery range of electric cars. The concern has bubbled up so often that it has been dubbed “range anxiety.” Some shoppers who do not have the option to set up a home charger in a garage have also expressed concerns about the availability of public chargers. According to a poll released in January by the EVs for All America group, an advocacy group that works with car manufacturers to push U.S. and state lawmakers to adopt EV-friendly policies, 20% of 600 respondents to a poll intended to survey potential EV buyers in 2025 said their top concern about plug-in models is the charger networks being unreliable. The same poll showed 65% of respondents said they would rather charge their batteries at home for a 7- to 8-hour period to achieve a full charge, while only 29% said they would rather opt for a 30-minute charge at a public facility that would achieve 80% battery life.
According to the most recent data from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which lobbies in Washington, D.C., for nearly all major carmakers, the number of public Level 2 chargers increased by 1% in the first quarter of 2026 from the end of 2025. The report said the number of DC fast chargers increased by 5%. Total charging ports increased 2% in the first quarter of 2026, according to the group.
With that in mind, I’ve recently tested several electric cars and SUVs, including the fully electric Kia EV9, Chevrolet Blazer, Toyota bZ and Lexus RZ, and I’ve had to use public chargers to recharge several of them. Here are my honest thoughts about that experience.
What Was It Like to Use a Public EV Charger?
The first time I used a public EV charger was when I had to recharge the first fully electric car I reviewed, the Chevrolet Blazer EV.
I located an Electrify America station in a nearby grocery store parking lot. The location had four available ports with connections for CCS, or Combined Charging System, which was the most common charger for non-Tesla EVs before the Austin-based automaker started opening its network to non-Tesla cars.
The Blazer I tested charged on CCS, so I was good to go without adapters. The model had 266 miles of range when it arrived with an 80% battery charge. It took about 35 minutes and cost about $25 to charge the battery from 45% to 80% at a public charger.
I initiated the charge as a guest, and the charger would not automatically provide a receipt like a gas-station pump. I had to call Electrify America’s customer service to get one. The representative sent me a text message with the transaction details. I signed up for an account for future charges afterward.
How Hard Was It to Find the Correct Public EV Charger?
I live in the Washington, D.C., area, which has one of the highest EV adoption rates in the country, so it was easy to find nearby public chargers. In the first quarter of 2026, 6% of all new cars sold in Washington, D.C., were electric, which was the 14th-highest market share in the nation, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. Washington, D.C., had 255 charging locations and 1,066 Level 2 public chargers, according to the group.
In my case, an Electrify America station with CCS chargers and a JOLT station with NACS ports were located within one mile of my home. The nearest Tesla Superchargers were about 10 miles away in either direction, but I was able to charge every EV I tested this year at one of the closer stations.
Each car had the ability to search for nearby chargers through its onboard infotainment system. I was also able to find chargers with quick Google searches. I even mapped out chargers on a 200-mile road trip I was considering taking and was surprised by how easy it was to find chargers along the route, even in more rural parts of the journey.
How Easy Were Adapters for Public EV Chargers to Use?
Once Tesla opened part of its charger network, known as the North American Charging Standard, to cars made by other manufacturers, carmakers started producing adapters for EVs with older CCS ports.
Initially, most people were expected to use adapters to connect CCS cars to Tesla’s NACS ports. But many newer EV models like the ones I tested after the Blazer started coming with NACS ports built in instead of older CCS ports.
However, many early public-charging stations, including most Electrify America stations, have CCS ports. You may still need an adapter to connect those plugs to the smaller NACS ports on newer cars.
The adapters are easy to snap on and generally work either way, giving drivers more options when they need a charge. Every EV I tested this year came with an adapter, and I had no problems snapping them on.
Keith Laing is an automotive reporter on the National Trending Desk at USA TODAY.
Reporting by Keith Laing, USA TODAY. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.