I find many of these chargers have broken cables and thus non-functional. It seems they are purposely broken so non ev vehicles can park there.

I got a Hyundai ionic 5 last winter and drove it with my family on 4 road-trips this summer between 6 and 12 hours, going from New Jersey to the Midwest and New England . We used EA exclusively and only had one negative experience that involved waiting for a charger for an hour. In every other case, we drove in, got 150 miles or more of charge and left 15 minutes later. It was incredibly efficient, and free (because we have temporary free service with the car purchase). If we were paying at these commercial chargers, it would have been about 40% the price of gas in our other car. Charging at home or at work is even cheaper. Can’t imagine buying a gas car again.

While your piece focuses on the two major playa's and their pedestrian relationship to the EV charging business there's a another business model in town. Stores that install free chargers as a come on and another important benefit for the business. The charger kiosk affords the opportunity to bombard the shopper with ads seconds before they enter the store. For the most part they are the slower and recommended for longer battery lifespan L2 'slow chargers' as routinely fast charging is not recommended. However one business does have a DCFC a charger that's free for 30 minutes, 30% for my Niro, adding 80 to 100+ miles range.
At this point in the evolution of EV's they're overwhelming advantage is as a relatively short range commuter around town car and not as a turnkey alternative to ICE cars for the majority of people who've been ingrained to expect 'set it and forget it' convenience. Currently it takes careful planning even for Teslas and especially in cold weather.

It's .22 kwh at home and .43kwh.. not much of a mystery

Doesn't every town have a public electric utility? Shouldn't our tax dollars provide charging stations via these utilities?

The biggest portion of the EV charging demand will likely be met by the commercial and public sector fleet users on an in-house, 'Off-Peak' basis. It is feasible due to the scale and the savings plus must fleets have a limited range of daily operations lending itself to in-house, off-peak load charging with the substantial long-term savings. Like school buses charging in the district at night and UPS and FedEx doing the same. Individual consumers, like myself would likely install a fast charging system in their homes and possibly utilize solar and battery systems for long-term savings and environmental benefits. Surprisingly, many people will spend for convenience, savings and environmental protection with priorities varying. Eventually, longer ranged and a more universal EV fleet of general users will bring about standardized solutions that are acceptable due to everyday practice. I recall when I was very reticent about "Pay at the Pump" because I was concerned about whether my payment would be secured and recorded so that it didn't appear as though I had just refueled and left without paying. In a few years these teething problems will be history as will ICE driven vehicles.

I think we are in the growing pains phase. Companies are having a hard time getting a handle on EV owners' behaviors and are basing it too much of the ICE habits with gas stations. Unless I absolutely needed to, why would I spend almost as much as a tank of gas to charge? Even the Level 2 chargers are often triple what electricity costs at home. I might use fast charge in a pinch to give me enough to get home if I was almost out of charge or maybe on a trip but that's it. I have used paid chargers twice and that's even with a 40kwh battery. I got an EV because of its economical nature. Fast charging isn't practical and paying for charging outside my home is also a limited thing.

Duke powwer put in 4 charge stations (I was impressed until I tried to use one). The charge app was awful, took 20 min to set up... then the Kwh supplied made me laugh. Worse than home and 3x the $$$.
Really a fast charger is the only way to go...and I will gladly pay more for that .

Unfortunately, EA chargers although plentiful, are poorly designed and maintained. Just yesterday I went to Walmart and tried to use one out of 4. Not one worked. I called EA and the lines were busy, then I finally got on hold and held for 30 minutes. Finally I had to leave. While I was there, 2 other EV'ers tried to charge and no luck. This infrastructure is not going to handle the onslaught of soon to be EV owners. It is not working now. I traveled up the central valley of California and there was a lot of frustration to find working chargers. However, the Tesla network is fine, lots of working chargers.Unfortunately, I could not avail myself as I own a new Rivian Truck.

One of the selling points to me was free charging through Electrify America. The problem is the closest EA charging station is 40 miles away. So much for that perk. I paid $900 for a home charging station and $500 for an electrician to install it. And my electric bill went up an additional $175/mo. Next car I buy will be gas driven.

In order to use Electrify the user has to agree with a bunch of conditions.

These may include paying their legal fees and some damages if a third party, out of the blue, through no fault of yours sues them. This may include a fault in the charger or your infringing someone's patents.

While I normally charge at home in my Mach E, I occasionally have to drive 200 miles to pick up family members at a large airport, especially at holiday time. The EA chargers have proven very reliable for me, but other chargers have been less reliable. Once I had to go to three locations before getting one to work, arriving with 15 miles left - definitely heart in throat material.

Electrify America requires customers to indemnify the company against some third party actions. While this might not be the reason for the lack of usage of EA chargers, it should be. Why should a customer take on such a risk for third party actions whom they don't even know?

Folow @Rateyourcharge on twitter where we report down and broken chargers. EA is constantly at the bottom of our list for reliability. People are selling EVs and not buying new onrs because of it. The Top EV reviewers on youtube are telling people to stay away. I just sold my BMW iX because of EAs inability to keep chargers up a d went to a plug in Ev hybrid. The other thing is EA might say their chargers are up on their app but it is on fact down. False repoeting is high and why i dont trust their metrics.