Driivz Annual Report Finds Shift in EV Charging Industry From Expansion to Intelligent Profitability
New research shows operators prioritizing uptime, AI-driven operations, and charger utilization as networks mature
The findings reveal a decisive industry shift from rapid infrastructure build-out toward what Driivz calls ‘intelligent profitability’ or the optimization of uptime, utilization and operations rather than simply deploying more chargers.
Among the report’s key findings:
- 59% of operators cite charger reliability and stability as the industry’s top challenge, overtaking energy constraints for the first time in the report’s history
- 67% say AI is “very important” or “critical” to company growth
- 59% rank increased charger utilization as the industry’s top profitability driver
- 47% prioritize 24/7 network availability and 43% prioritize seamless authentication to ensure good charging experiences in 2026
"The EV charging industry is rapidly maturing, shifting from a focus on deployment to operational intelligence," said
Intelligent profitability is increasingly powered by AI. The report highlights AI's expanding role across anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, pricing optimization, demand charge reduction and network planning, with operators ranking anomaly detection (72%), pricing optimization (70%) and predictive maintenance (69%) as the top use cases expected to drive operational improvements. Yet nearly two-thirds said data quality gaps and integration complexity are limiting their ability to fully implement AI-driven strategies, pointing to the next frontier operators must cross to realize the full promise of intelligent profitability.
Driver experience is also gaining urgency as networks mature, with operators increasingly viewing reliability, seamless authentication and flexible payment capabilities as competitive differentiators. Reliability concerns were especially pronounced among larger networks, where 73% identified uptime and stability as a top challenge.
On cybersecurity, 64% of operators described their readiness as robust or very robust, though many lag on advanced protections such as fraud detection, 24/7 threat monitoring, encryption controls and vulnerability scanning, which are gaps that pose a real risk to the reliable, trusted networks that intelligent profitability demands.
Driivz processes more than four billion data points across 100 terabytes of global charging data, giving Driivz the unmatched intelligence needed to help operators improve reliability, optimize energy management and build profitable networks at scale.
The full 2026 State of EV Charging Network Operators Report is available for download on the Driivz website.
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Source: Driivz
