RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 9, 2026--
Nine in ten EV drivers will detour to reach a charger someone else vouched for. That's the headline finding from new research by Driivz, a Vontier (NYSE: VNT) company and leading global software supplier to electric vehicle (EV) charging operators and service providers, and it points to a shift reshaping how drivers choose where to plug in.
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The survey of more than 3,000 EV drivers across North America and Europe found that 91% would make a detour to charge at a location recommended by another EV driver, and 76% would avoid a charging network entirely based on a warning from friends or family. More than half (55%) said they'd travel more than five minutes out of their way for a recommended spot.
Put simply: recommendations aren't a nice-to-have anymore. They're routing traffic.
"EV charging has become much more than a question of where the nearest charger is located," said Shiri Levi-Laor, CEO of Driivz. "Drivers are no longer just asking 'where is a charger?' They're asking 'is there a charger I can rely on?' and increasingly, they're trusting each other for the answer rather than relying on traditional navigation tools."
When drivers need to find an unfamiliar charging location, they trust specialist charging apps (33%) and recommendations from EV-driving friends and family (32%) more than satellite navigation and mapping apps (27%).
The split runs deeper than a simple preference. Among drivers who trust specialist apps, 81% don't also count navigation tools among their most trusted sources, and among those who trust word of mouth, 76% say the same. The findings suggest these are not simply overlapping habits; they're two distinct sources of charging intelligence operating alongside traditional navigation.
For charge point operators, the research makes one thing clear: a single session no longer stays a single session. Drivers talk, and increasingly, they talk in public, trackable ways.
The upside for charge point operators (CPOs) is significant. Drivers are nearly as vocal about good experiences as bad ones: 42% say they're most likely to talk about a charging session that exceeded expectations, versus 39% who are more likely to talk about one that fell short. Reliability isn't just about avoiding complaints anymore; it's a direct lever for earning advocacy.
"Reliable charging experiences build trust, and trust increasingly drives recommendations, reviews and future charging decisions," Levi-Laor said. "For operators, that creates a direct line from operational performance to customer loyalty, and ultimately, to long-term network utilization and profitability."
The findings track closely with Driivz's 2026 State of EV Charging Network Operators Report, which found operators are already shifting investment toward the fundamentals that drive this kind of trust: 24/7 network availability (47%) and seamless authentication (43%) rank as the top priorities for improving the charging experience.
The business logic behind that shift is telling: 59% of CPOs now say charger utilization, not expansion, is their primary driver of profitability, compared with just 15% who point to network growth.
Read together, the two reports describe an interesting industry transition. As charging infrastructure matures, the competitive edge is shifting from how many chargers you have to how many drivers vouch for the ones you've already built.
The research also surfaced a split in how drivers evaluate their options. Younger drivers are the early adopters of this social layer and are more likely to explore new networks, lean on specialist charging apps and follow peer recommendations. Older drivers, by contrast, tend to stick with networks they've already trusted, favoring loyalty over discovery.
That gap matters for operators thinking about the next five years, not just the next fiscal quarter: the behavior driving the ‘social layer’ today is the default behavior of tomorrow's largest driver segment.
Charger availability and speed got the industry this far. What comes next may be decided somewhere else entirely: in the reviews, warnings and recommendations drivers exchange with each other before they ever plug in. The networks that win won't just be the ones with the most chargers. They'll be the ones drivers are already telling their friends about.
About Driivz
Driivz, a Vontier (NYSE: VNT ) company, is a leading global software supplier to EV charging operators and service providers, accelerating the plug-in EV industry's dynamic and continuous transformation. The company's intelligent, cloud-based platform spans EV charging operations, energy management, advanced billing capabilities and driver self-service tools. Driivz's team of EV experts serves customers in 36 countries, including global industry players such as EVgo, Shell, Circle K, Volvo Group, Recharge, St1, ESB, Mer, Francis Energy, Ennet Corporation, Element and eMobility Power. The Driivz platform currently supports over 3M Ports and has processed over 70M transactions for millions of EV drivers in North America, Europe and APAC. For more information, please visit www.driivz.com.
About Vontier
Vontier (NYSE: VNT) is a global industrial technology company uniting productivity, automation and multi-energy technologies to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving, more connected mobility ecosystem. Leveraging leading market positions, decades of domain expertise and unparalleled portfolio breadth, Vontier enables the way the world moves – delivering smart, safe and sustainable solutions to our customers and the planet. Vontier has a culture of continuous improvement and innovation built upon the foundation of the Vontier Business System and embraced by colleagues worldwide. Additional information about Vontier is available on the Company’s website at www.vontier.com.
New global research reveals a ‘social layer’ now shaping EV charging decisions, where word of mouth carries more weight than traditional navigation tools. More than 3,000 EV drivers across North America and Europe found that 91% would make a detour to charge at a location recommended by another EV driver, and 76% would avoid a charging network entirely based on a warning from friends or family.
LA VILLA DE LOS SANTOS, Panama (AP) — The government of Panama declared a state of emergency Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours. Officials did not attribute any deaths to the quakes but reported damages in all 10 of Panama's provinces and two Indigenous territories.
The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes on Friday toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2.
The earlier quake, also felt in neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac announced the emergency during a news conference in the capital, Panama City. He said homes, schools, healthcare facilities, roads and hotels were among the damaged facilities.
Malitzie Rivera, deputy director of the National Civil Protection System, told reporters the state had reports of 27 people with injuries, ranging from minor to moderate.
Most of the damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera, Cocle and Los Santos.
The Civil Protection agency tallied roughly 420 homes and about the same number of public schools damaged. It also reported that seven hotels, at least 13 churches and nine bridges were affected by the earthquakes.
In La Villa de Los Santos, a colonial-era community about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, homes and a historical Catholic church collapsed. People who spent the night on the streets were waiting for the government's guidance on what to do next.
“We’ve been here since 1 p.m. yesterday; we haven’t moved,” Tony Jiménez, whose home partially collapsed, said while sitting with relatives under a tent. “It was a terrible thing. I can tell you with absolute certainty that in my 90 years, I had never experienced anything like it. It was intense — truly intense.”
The collapsed Church of San Atanasio was declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938.
Images of crumbling buildings and deep fissures slicing through roads added to fears across a Latin American region battered by a series of devastating earthquakes in recent months.
Two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes roiled Venezuela’s La Guaira state in June, killing more than 6,500 people and leaving 17,000 homeless. In August, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia killed at least 289 people.
The notably lower toll in nearby Panama may have been due to the country's strict building codes, especially governing construction of skyscrapers in the capital, said Carlos Valdés, head of the Seismology Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Officials did not report any missing people on Saturday but said some communities remained cut off due to landslides and road damage.
On Isla Caña, off the Pacific coast of Los Santos, approximately 300 people were evacuated because of rising sea levels and rough surf. Meanwhile, in the city of Penonomé, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the capital, a shelter was housing 13 people, including five children. The earthquakes caused a partial collapse and cracks at the cathedral in the district’s main square, as well as damage to the governor’s office building and the Dos Continentes hotel.
In Panama City, one of the water treatment plants supplying the area operated at 20% capacity on Saturday, and tent facilities with cots were set up at six hospitals.
Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, one of the region’s busiest airports with more than 20 million passengers in 2025, temporarily suspended operations after the first quake but said Friday but reopened hours later.
But hundreds of travelers on major Panama-based airlines like Copa Airlines were left stranded in airports around the region. Their connections through Tocumen — one of the biggest travel hubs in the region — were canceled or delayed. In Mexico City’s airport, airline employees scrambled as families with babies were sleeping on the floor Saturday while one woman from Venezuela shouted in panic that the flight through Panama was one of the only ways she could return home to Caracas.
The Panama Canal Authority said operations were continuing normally along the global trade route. It said its priority was the safety of employees, vessels and crews and that specialized technical teams were inspecting facilities for possible damage.
The last major earthquake to cause widespread damage in Panama struck in 1991. A magnitude 7.4 quake, centered in nearby Costa Rica, killed 23 people, injured 559 and left thousands of people homeless in the border Bocas del Toro region.
Earthquakes are common, especially along Panama's border with Costa Rica and its Pacific coast, because of the interaction of several tectonic plates, including the Cocos, Nazca and Caribbean plates.
Panama lies along the “Ring of Fire,” a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin, where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
Messages of support and offers of assistance flooded in from across the region shortly after the earthquakes. Mulino on Friday thanked fellow Latin American leaders for their support, saying he had spoken with the presidents of Chile, Uruguay and Guatemala, among others.
The U.S. Department of State on Saturday said it mobilized a disaster response team to help local authorities with search and rescue expertise as well as aerial and on-the-ground assessments. The U.S. government also pledged $5 million for humanitarian assistance.
U.S. Southern Command also said two helicopters supported by the State Department's drug-control bureau had delivered 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of food to Panamanian communities affected by the earthquakes.
Solís reported from Panama City. Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky, Regina Garcia Cano and María Verza in Mexico City; Juan Zamorano in Panama City; Clara Preve in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gabriela Molina in Quito, Ecuador; Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro; and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A partially collapsed building stands after an earthquake struck Penonome, Panama, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aris Mariota)
People stand outside a building after an earthquake struck Panama City, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Alma Solis)
Vehicles lie crushed beneath a collapsed hotel after an earthquake struck Penonome, Panama, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aris Mariota)
A statue lies on the ground after being knocked off its pedestal by an earthquake in Penonome, Panama, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aris Mariota)
A vehicle lies crushed beneath a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Penonome, Panama, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aris Mariota)
