American EV Owners Have Never Been Happier and There’s a Big Lesson for Canada

American owners of electric vehicles (EVs) have never been more satisfied with their cars, according to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) ownership study. The single factor that has improved the most over the last year is satisfaction with public charging.

Overall, the organization found that in the premium EV segment, average satisfaction is rated at 786 out of 1,000. Meanwhile, in the mass market segment, satisfaction is at 727 out of 1,000.

In both cases those are the highest scores ever recorded in the EVX study. The ratings are also higher for fully electric vehicles than they are for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) in both the premium segment, where owners of the gas electric vehicles report an average satisfaction score of 672, and the mainstream segment, where satisfaction is, on average, 610.

Such is the satisfaction of EV owners, that 96 per cent of them say they would consider purchasing or leasing another EV as their next vehicle. The results are significant because, although EV sales slowing, recent buying trends mean that the pool of existing owners in the U.S. has likely never been larger.

Although owners reported improving vehicle quality in both the premium and mass market segments this year, the single most improved index in the EVX study was owner's satisfaction with public charging.

Growing access to charging ports and the wider availability of Tesla’s Supercharger network has led to satisfaction jumping by more than 100 points among both premium and mass market EV owners, according to JD Power. And that could be an important lesson for Canada, if it wants to encourage the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs).

Although the vast majority of Canadian EV owners said they would consider another one when it came time to acquire their next vehicle, the latest data from the annual Electric Vehicle Charging Experience Survey, published in 2025, the number (86 per cent) was meaningfully lower than the latest U.S. figure.

One possible reason for that difference is the significantly lower satisfaction with Canada's charging network. Quebec was the province whose EV drivers were the most satisfied with public charging, but just 46 per cent reported that station availability was adequate. Meanwhile, in Ontario and British Columbia, just 28 and 21 per cent of owners said it was satisfactory.

Admittedly, Canada’s charging infrastructure has improved significantly in recent years. Natural Resources Canada reports that there are now more than 33,000 ports in public places across Canada and 18,000 more are currently planned. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced another $84.4 million to install a further 8,000 chargers across the nation, despite rolling back the nation’s ambition to electrify 100 per cent of new vehicles sold by 2035.

Back in the U.S., JD Power found that Tesla Model 3 (with a satisfaction score of 804 out of 1,000) and Model Y (797) owners were the premium EV drivers the most satisfied with their vehicles, while the BMW i4 (795) and iX (794) followed closely.

In the mass market segment, Ford Mustang Mach-E (760) owners were the most satisfied with their vehicles, while Hyundai Ioniq 6 (748), Kia EV9 (745), and Hyundai Ioniq 5 (743) owners followed closely.