EV Charging Networks: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

In September 2026, ChargePoint Home (ChargePoint Holdings) led the EV Charging Networks benchmark with a valid recommendation coverage of 30.5%, up from 28.3% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Tesla Wall Connector (Tesla, Inc.), was 2.9 percentage points, as Tesla Wall Connector (Tesla, Inc.) reached 27.6% in September 2026, up from 26.2% in July 2026.

The largest coverage decline was for Blink Charging, which moved from 2.9% in July 2026 to 0.6% in September 2026, a drop of 2.3 percentage points, reflecting movement beyond normal month-to-month variation. No tracked brand registered a significant coverage increase this month.

The current month marks a return to a two-brand leadership structure after August 2026, when the benchmark tracked a different brand set that placed ChargePoint, Tesla Supercharger, Electrify America, and EVgo in a tight 16% to 18% cluster. In September 2026, the July leader set reappeared, with ChargePoint Home (ChargePoint Holdings) and Tesla Wall Connector (Tesla, Inc.) again holding the top two positions.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 521 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending EV Charging Networks

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations were qualified.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommendations.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative sentiment among mentions, normalized.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Blink Charging

Blink Charging's valid recommendation coverage fell from 2.9% in July 2026 to 0.6% in September 2026, a decline of 2.3 percentage points, beyond normal month-to-month variation. The series recorded a value of 5.8% in August 2026 before returning to a lower level in September. Blink Charging's presence rate held roughly steady at 22.8%, while its top-three rate fell from 1.0% to 0.0%, showing that presence without top-three placement produces almost no valid recommendations.

Category Leader: ChargePoint Home (ChargePoint Holdings)

ChargePoint Home (ChargePoint Holdings) leads the category with 30.5% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, up from 28.3% in July 2026. Tesla Wall Connector (Tesla, Inc.) follows at 27.6%, up from 26.2% in July 2026. Both leaders returned to form after August 2026, when the benchmark tracked these brands under different names with no coverage recorded. The next closest brand, EVgo, sat at 6.3%, roughly one-fifth of the leader's coverage.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The table below shows placement for the leading brands.

Tesla Wall Connector (Tesla, Inc.) held a 16.1% rank-one rate in September 2026, up from 11.5% in July 2026 (up 4.6 points), while ChargePoint Home (ChargePoint Holdings) rank-one rate moved from 13.2% in July 2026 to 9.4% in September 2026 (down 3.8 points). Close coverage can still hide different first-position strength.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private and sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index measures how AI and search surfaces discover, mention, and recommend brands across defined verticals. It is a neutral industry benchmark updated monthly.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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