Plug-In Hybrid Buyers Charge at Home More Often Than Most Stores Assume
Ford said on October 28 that its 2027 Fathom pickup will be able to power a home without a separate wall-mounted inverter, and that the home hardware should cost about half as much as before. Automakers are spending real money on the garage, because that is where most charging happens.
Home Charging Is Part of the Sale Now
A lot of stores treat home charging as something the customer sorts out after delivery. J.D. Power's 2026 Home Charging Study found 86% of typical EV charging happens at home, so that is where most of the ownership experience lives. The same study found owners spend an average of $63 a month charging at home, and that figure went up from a year earlier.
Only about 20% of owners said the dealer who sold them the car gave them any education or advice on home charging. That leaves the door wide open for the store that makes home charging part of the conversation. Odds are an owner who drives away with a home charging plan makes fewer calls back to the store.
The trouble usually shows up at the house. A Level 2 charger runs on an upgraded 240-volt outlet, according to J.D. Power, and chances are some older homes need electrical panel work before one goes in. When the install stalls or the electrician's bill surprises the customer, the call comes back to the store that sold the car, even though the problem started in the garage.
Plug-In Hybrid Owners Plug In More Than Expected
The common belief is that PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) owners rarely bother to plug in. Toyota's research group studied data from thousands of its plug-in hybrids and found Toyota owners plug in seven out of every 10 driving days. Only 9% of the Toyota drivers in that sample rarely plug in.
That changes how the home charging question gets handled on the floor. A plug-in hybrid buyer is a home charging customer, the same as a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) buyer, and a standard household outlet may cover a short daily drive. If nobody sets that expectation, the car likely runs as a regular hybrid and the owner wonders where the fuel savings went.
Where the customer lives matters too. Toyota's researchers are testing whether some drivers who rarely plug in live in apartments or condos where no outlet reaches the parking spot. J.D. Power found only 18% of shoppers living in apartments were very likely to consider an EV, and the HERE and SBD Automotive EV Index found 29% of U.S. drivers named charging at home or work as a reason their EV interest grew.
On the Sales Floor This Week
Ask every plug-in hybrid and BEV shopper one simple question early in the visit: "Where will the car park overnight?" The answer tells you whether home charging will be easy, will need an electrician or will need a different plan, and it gets the customer thinking about it well before delivery day.
Conclusion
At the next sales meeting, put one question to the team: how many of last month's plug-in buyers left knowing where and how they would charge at home? If nobody can say for certain, that is worth finding out before the next round of phone calls.
Home charging gets set up after the car leaves the lot, at a house the store never sees, and questions about outlets, panels and chargers still find their way back to the showroom. Closing that gap is the work Gateway EV Advisor takes on with your store, through interactive advisory sessions on a regular cadence that keep Sales and Service current on charging, so both departments give customers the same answer as the vehicles and programs change.
Gateway EV Advisor works to elevate dealership Sales and Service teams' EV knowledge, to communicate professionally with customers to increase EV sales and protect CSI. See how at www.gatewayevadvisor.com/ev-training-for-dealerships.
Sources
- CBT News, Ford aims to simplify bidirectional charging with the Fathom (October 2026) - cbtnews.com
- CBT News, EV home charging satisfaction declines as costs rise, JD Power study (March 2026) - cbtnews.com
- J.D. Power, EV Home Charging Costs Rise and Satisfaction Falls, but Few EV Owners Take Advantage of Scheduled Charging or Smart Charging Programs (March 2026) - businesswire.com
- Toyota USA Newsroom, Do Plug-In Hybrid Owners Actually Plug In? (May 2026) - pressroom.toyota.com
- CBT News, More shoppers considering EVs, price and charging availability still driving many away (May 2026) - cbtnews.com
- HERE Technologies and SBD Automotive, Americans warming up to EVs as charging infrastructure confidence grows, HERE-SBD EV Index 2026 finds (September 2026) - globenewswire.com