Charging Consumer Behavior and Perceptions
How EV drivers and fleets choose, pay for, and perceive charging: market research for CPOs, eMSPs, OEMs, and energy suppliers
Charging is where the EV experience is won or lost. Providers compete on locations, tariffs, payment, and services, and customers are becoming more diverse as the mass market arrives. USCALE’s charging studies show how drivers and fleets actually behave and what they expect. This page gives you an overview of the questions we answer and the study behind each one.
Which charging questions do our studies answer?
Who are the charging customers, and how do you reach them?
The EV Charging Persona Study segments more than 1,000 BEV drivers in Germany into five charging profiles and four charging personas. It links charging, driving, and living behavior with values, attitudes, and media usage. The EV Adopter Persona Study looks at the next group: 1,000 combustion-engine drivers in Germany, grouped into four adopter personas.
Where and how do drivers charge in public?
The Public Charging Study covers charging decisions in public, at retail locations, and at work: which criteria decide where drivers charge, how much price and charging speed matter, and which problems they face. Data for Germany is from August 2026, with earlier data for France, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Norway.
How do drivers charge at home?
The Private Charging Study surveys 2,026 EV drivers and prospective BEV buyers in Germany. It looks at wallboxes, sockets, PV systems, and energy management. The same study ran in nine other European markets.
Which provider do drivers choose, and why do they switch?
The CPO/eMSP Charging Services Study, now in its eighth edition, surveys 2,500 EV drivers in Germany. It shows market shares, reasons for using or leaving a service, and the key selection criteria.
How do drivers want to pay?
The Charging Payment Study compares the four most important payment methods, from direct payment to contracts. It shows which drivers are open to which method and which arguments win them over.
Which tariffs and prices work?
The Charging Tariff and Pricing Study asked 1,722 EV drivers who charge publicly which tariff and pricing models they prefer, and how preferences differ by target group.
Is the market ready for bidirectional charging?
The Bidirectional Charging Study surveyed 11,177 drivers in five European markets, including a census-representative group of combustion-engine drivers. It covers the use cases V2H, V2G, and V2B.
What do commercial fleets need from charging providers?
The Fleet Charging Study surveys 1,213 fleet decision makers in Germany about electrification status, depot and on-the-road charging, and how they choose hardware and software providers.
See all USCALE multi-client studies here. Questions? Write to contact@uscale.digital.
What you get from our charging research
Agile research
Our multi-client studies answer most of your questions right away. For anything beyond that, we use our panel of 10,000 EV drivers and can target specific charging behaviors and vehicle brands.
Customer segmentation
New user groups are entering the market, and their motivation and behavior differ from those of early adopters. Our persona studies show who your charging customers are and how to reach them.
Customer journey
Do EV buyers look for the car first or for the charging solution? Do they buy a wallbox from an electrician or from a specialist supplier? We show which groups take which route and what matters to them.
Customer experience
Where does charging work well, and where does it not? Our studies show the pain points of EV drivers and which features still need improvement.
Benchmarking
Our studies show which providers convince drivers and why, and which market shares the main CPOs and eMSPs hold.
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