EVs of both the four- and two-wheeled variety are gaining popularity all over the world. No matter where you go, it seems that more and more EVs are parked in malls, commercial centers, and office buildings. And indeed, the allure of sustainability, convenience, and practicality is what fools so many into spending way too much money on these appliances on wheels.
Surely, when buying an EV, you’d think that charging should be much easier than filling up at the pumps. And while in theory it should be as easy as charging your smartphone, this couldn’t be any further from the truth.
You see, there are layers upon layers of faff that can quickly turn your dream charging experience into a nightmare. You know, apps, subscriptions, payment links, and authorization steps? I ran into this craziness not too long ago when I drove for a buddy of mine in his EV. We decided to charge it up at a gas station while grabbing some lunch. How hard could it be? All I had to do was plug the damn thing in, right? Spoiler alert: I was wrong.
After plugging the thing into the charger, the screen told me that I had to download some obscure charging app I’d never heard of before. After that, I would then need to link said app to one of my P2P payment accounts, authorize it through email, and wait for an SMS verification code. By the time I found the App on the Apple App Store, our lunch was waiting for us. Not wanting my food to go cold, I decided that we had enough charge left to make it home, and decided not to deal with the hassle of using public charging infrastructure.
