Ninety-four percent of commercial decision-makers say EV charging has become essential to how their organizations operate and compete, according to survey results released this week. The finding comes from BTC POWER’s State of EV Charging study, a proprietary survey of more than 200 buyers actively deploying charging infrastructure across retail, fleet, hospitality, corporate campuses, fueling and convenience stores, and multi-family housing. The Irvine, California-based manufacturer says the responses signal a market that has crossed a critical threshold.
Highlights
- 94% of organizations report EV charging has become essential to how they operate and compete
- 97% plan to increase EV charging investment, including 66% who are very likely to boost spending
- 99% agree EV charging represents a competitive advantage for their organization
- 60% prefer a full-service partner, more than three times the 17% who prefer a hardware-only provider
Investment Intent Runs Ahead of Satisfaction
Beyond the headline figure, 92% of respondents report significant or moderate positive impact from their charging programs, and 99% agree the technology represents a competitive advantage. Spending plans track with that sentiment: 97% intend to increase charging investment, with 66% describing themselves as very likely to do so.
The company frames those results against a countervailing finding — that high satisfaction scores coexist with performance and software challenges it says will separate leading operators from the rest. That tension echoes earlier industry research on charging satisfaction, where reliability and experience gaps have persisted even as deployment scales.
Why Are Operators Switching Charging Vendors?
According to BTC POWER, reliability has displaced price as the deciding factor when buyers change suppliers.
“The switching trends revealed by the data are highly instructive. Performance and reliability now outrank cost as the primary reasons charging network operators change vendors. That tells us the EV charging market has matured beyond a lowest-price mindset. Decision-makers have experienced installations that failed to meet expectations, and they now recognize that the true cost of unreliable hardware—including downtime, maintenance, lost revenue, and poor driver experiences—far exceeds any upfront savings. As the industry continues to scale, performance, reliability, and long-term value will separate the market leaders from those left behind,” said SJ Oh, Chief Revenue Officer at BTC POWER.
Sustainability and Customer Demand Lead Adoption Drivers
The survey ranks environmental sustainability and customer demand as the joint top drivers of commercial charging adoption, each cited by 46% of respondents. Revenue generation follows at 36%, and fleet transition at 32%.
Oh tied that shift to how organizations now justify charging programs. “A few years ago, sustainability was the reason companies started looking at EV charging. Now it is one of several reasons they cannot stop,” he said. “Among corporate campuses specifically, 55% cited ESG progress as their top realized benefit from EV charging programs, the highest single-category score across all facility types in the survey.”
Policy Confidence Holds Despite Funding Uncertainty
Ninety percent of decision-makers expressed confidence that government and industry policies will sustain EV charging growth, a result the company contrasts with widespread media coverage of federal funding uncertainty. Incentives still shape project decisions: federal tax credits, NEVI funding, and utility incentives influence 61% of deployment plans, while state incentives affect 58%.
Buyers Want Partners, Not Just Hardware
The procurement preference in the data is pronounced. Sixty percent of decision-makers said they prefer a full-service partner covering planning through ongoing support, against 17% who prefer a hardware-only provider — a ratio of more than three to one. That preference aligns with the operational complexity emerging elsewhere in the sector, including commercial fleet charging deployments where siting, energy management, and long-term service increasingly determine project outcomes.
The full white paper includes segment-by-segment analysis and findings on vendor selection, software performance, and expansion decisions.
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