Beginner's syndrome: What problems do electric car owners have?
The growing popularity of electric vehicles and hybrids has also led to an increase in the number of calls to roadside assistance services and technical support for operators. Novice electric car drivers mostly have problems with charging: they incorrectly calculate the remaining mileage or cannot connect to the station. In addition, the number of charging sessions has increased — due to queues at the gas station, hybrids also went to the outlets. Nevertheless, experts and market players are waiting for the growth of the segment of cars powered by new energy. Izvestia found out why they were so sure.
You start to understand after six months
Over the past four months, the number of calls from hybrid owners to PSS Corporation's electric charging support service has increased by 35%, Maxim Politov, Director of development at the Perm manufacturer of PSS charging stations, told the CarX conference. According to him, almost half of the appeals relate to the "novice syndrome".
— They bought an electric car, came to charge, and start asking questions: "How do I download the app? How do I charge for the first time?" Another 35% simply do not understand the logic of an electric car. You start to understand it after about six months of using it, and after a year you learn more and more about it," Maxim Politov said.
He cited the Volkswagen ID as an example.4. In this model, if charging has not started in a minute and a half after connecting to the station, then you need to drive the car three meters back and three meters forward, and then re-insert the connector. On Zeekr, after three unsuccessful charging attempts, you need to drive at least 6 km, the expert said, based on his own experience.
Another 20% of calls to tech support are related to real charging problems.
— As Russian manufacturers, we are faced with the fact that no one provides us with protocols. Neither Europe nor China. That is, new cars come to us, and we see that for some reason they are not charged. We remove logs and constantly "roll out" new firmware. For example, the Zeekr 009 has two firmware versions: the new one and the old one, and they contradict each other. The Zeekr X can arrive at the same charging station and fail to charge. Either you don't charge on one and charge on the next one," Maxim Politov said.
The editors of Izvestia have learned from their own experience that not all modern cars are correctly connected to the EHS.
The neighbors are to blame
The number of requests from owners of electric vehicles and hybrids to roadside assistance services has increased significantly, Denis Shubin, CEO of A24, told Izvestia.
— People buy electric cars and think that it's the same as an internal combustion engine, only you fill up with electricity. That EHS is on every corner and is always free, that you can plug it into an outlet at home and everything will be fine. But the realities, it turns out, are different. The main problem is where to charge, not even for how long, but where and for how long," he noted.
Almost a third (28%) of calls to the A24 help desk are related to the fact that the electric car did not reach charging. About the same number of motorists are unable to open and start an electric car because its starting and traction batteries are dead. Another 18% of drivers call a mobile charging station, as they were unable to charge themselves at night in the parking lot from slow "charging". And in some cases, the neighbors who took out the cable were to blame.
Another 14% of requests are related to problems replenishing the battery on fast EHS — for example, the charging station "does not see" the electric car or vice versa.
Charging became more frequent, but shorter.
According to the data of the EHS operators announced at the CarX conference, the amount of energy shipped by charging stations has increased 2-4 times in nine months. At the same time, the number of charging sessions increased 3-5 times, with the most noticeable increase occurring in July – September. The most popular connector is GB/T, which is used in most Chinese electric vehicles and hybrids.
Interestingly, the average consumption per session decreased by 15-20%, and the average charging time was 29.8 minutes. Experts explain this by the fact that owners of hybrids, who used to travel mainly on gasoline, also turned to power outlets due to the fuel crisis. Hybrids have significantly fewer batteries than electric vehicles, so they take less time to charge.
They try to charge at home
There are 8,000 public charging stations in Russia. The infrastructure as a whole is less than 10% loaded, so the ratio of the number of electric vehicles and new energy vehicles in Russia is even better than in the EU, Maxim Politov noted, with 28 cars per station compared to 30 in the European Union. For comparison, in China, this figure is 9.3 cars per EHS. However, there is a noticeable difference in coverage: if in China one station accounts for 1.2 km, and in Europe for 4, then in Russia — for 187 km of highway.
According to the Autostat agency, 46% of charging stations are concentrated in five major Russian regions. Moscow is in the lead, accounting for 17% of charges, followed by the Moscow Region (15%), St. Petersburg (6%), Krasnodar Krai (5%) and Tatarstan (3%). The capital has the largest number of electric vehicles per charge — 18.8, as it has the largest fleet of them.
According to the survey conducted by Autostat, the vast majority of electric car owners charge their car either at their home station (38.5%) or from an outlet at home or at work (28.3%). Only 15.9% use public charging.
Meanwhile, charging difficulties don't seem to be a major problem for NEV owners. According to the same survey, almost 60% of the respondents met their expectations of operating NEV. The owners of Nissan, Tesla and Zeekr have the highest index of expectations, while the owners of Evolute, VW and Voyah have noticeably lower expectations.
The growth could be great
The growth in popularity of NEV began in 2023, according to Autostat, but the demand for purely electric cars was even declining in 2025. In 2026, for only 9 months, sales of electric vehicles increased by 42% by 2025, to 11.4 thousand units, and hybrids — to 58.7 thousand units, 2.5 times.
The fuel crisis led to a kind of "buckwheat effect" — against the background of a shortage of gasoline, customers began to buy electric cars and hybrids. At the same time, sales could have been higher if domestic automakers had been able to meet demand, suggested Sergey Udalov, executive director of the Autostat analytical agency.
— Many people think that in this strange summer, which is associated with some fuel restrictions, we happily jumped on the golden horse, which brought us a lot of sales and everything else. Unfortunately, this is not the case, because at that moment the plant was just under reconstruction, we were setting up the welding line for the Evolve i-Space and the new generation i-Joy and preparing for the launch of the new i-Sky. Nevertheless, the plant is working in two shifts to make up for lost time and meet the needs for cars that were ordered back in the summer. Because of this, the launch of Evolve i-Sky was postponed," said Vasily Chebotarev, head of special projects for the Evolve brand, at the CarX conference.
According to the results of 9 months of this year, Russian brands in the NEV segment account for 42% of sales, the Evolute became the most popular electric vehicles, and imported Geely took the lead among hybrids.
According to Natalia Mityaeva, CEO of Panauto, the "electrification" of the Russian market is taking place due to plug-in hybrids, for many buyers they remain a more understandable transitional format to vehicles powered by new energy. Electric vehicles remain a niche segment for now, although the fuel situation has improved demand for them. After the July peak, the dynamics of sales of pure electric trains became more calm. Further demand may be affected by uncertainty about preferential programs, experts say.
They depend on government support
Achieving a 25% share of transport based on new energy sources is impossible without government support measures, says Tatyana Redko, chairman of the Commission for the Development of transport infrastructure of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport.
— The expert community says that there should be quotas for state fleets and taxis, there should be direct support measures, without which it is impossible to develop any direction. State support can be differentiated based on points, but it is necessary," she said.
According to her, the massive introduction of NEV will make the Russian transport system more stable, 90% dependent on gasoline, In addition, a huge amount of private funds (0.5 trillion rubles) has already been allocated to create electric mobility in Russia.
— This includes the creation of factories, assembly sites, and charging infrastructure. This includes the launch of new specialties in universities," said Tatiana Redko.
According to her, it is necessary to unify support measures, which differ from region to region, and precisely define regional development: electric vehicles for Moscow and the south of Russia, and gas—powered fuel in the northern regions.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
