Refueling an EV be like

This is a post for people who never drove an electric vehicle (EV) before.

Imagine for a moment that for refueling your car you had to open an app to search for gas stations and filter them by whether they have Diesel, and then whether the pump delivers a decent stream of Diesel, or just by the drop. Next, when you found one, imagine you had to go to the pump's reviews in the app to estimate the odds that judging from the most recent comments there actually is Diesel.

When you arrive at the designated point, imagine that the gas pump is somewhere randomly hidden in a sparely lit industrial area parking lot. To start fueling, imagine you needed that random gas station brand's own RFID card that of course you don't have, or an app. Fine, imagine you scanned the QR code on the pump to download the app, only to find that the app isn't available in the country your phone's app store is registered in. Dead end. Cool, cool, there's another gas station within 15km, just still within the remaining range.

When you arrive at the other gas station, luckily their app is downloadable because they published their app globally. 75MB on a crappy 3G network. You finally have the app. Now you need to create an account. Email, phone number, national ID, address; whatever, fine. At this point, you'd sell a kidney for the right to fuel your car. Finally the SMS account confirmation arrives. Notification permission? Sure. Location access? Fine. Get access to your photos? Right. Wait, what? Ah, they need you to scan a QR code on the pump to start fueling, so that must be why they're asking. Likely…?

Oh, in order to proceed, verify your email. Alright, verified and logged in. But on their website in the app. Weird, you thought you needed to download an app because only the app can get you fuel, and now apparently the website can? Hmm, now there's a link to log in to the app, on the website. Email. Password? Ah, it's in the browser's password manager. Wait, twice actually , once with your national ID as the user name and once with your email. Likely you signed up in the past on a long gone phone.

Well… The new credentials luckily work. Pasted from the browser's password manager into the app because of course they built it with whatever framework the Android password manager doesn't support. Finally logged in. Choose how much Diesel you want and from what pump. To do so, scan the QR code on the pump or enter the pump ID manually. Luckily the ID is still readable while the QR code is covered by random local soccer club ultras fan stickers someone placed there. You're that close to fueling.

Pre-authorize the fuel purchase by accepting the charge in your bank's app. Pre-payment accepted, please go back to the app. Oh, sorry, unfortunately the fueling capability is currently not available. Please try again later. Hmm, maybe you were not supposed to plug in the nozzle before you go through the payment dance? Try again, hoping the gas station company charges you back for the "finished fueling" that never started. OK, finally the Diesel is flowing, time for a well-deserved coffee. Ah, wait, there's nothing open because you're in the middle of nowhere on an industrial area parking lot.

The above is an extreme case of an EV charging experience, narrated for fossil fuel drivers. But it actually happened. Here's what I would like to see:

• Every EV charging station has to accept the exact same cashless payment methods they allow for fossil fueling. In Europe, this would essentially be credit and debit cards. Support app payment if you want, but don't make it the only option.
• Municipalities should stop building slow charging infrastructure, unless maybe in residential areas. Instead, we need fast DC charging stations widely available.
• Every gas station with fossil fuel pumps should have to have fast EV charging stations as well, in relationship to the number of fossil fuel pumps they have, with regulation enforcing a transition to electric mobility over time. Today it might be one fast charger for every four fossil fuel pumps, gradually increasing over the years.

Oh, I forgot to say that the sun has been refueling our two EVs, the Hyundai Kona from the picture above and a Peugeot e-208, for free for the last several years ☀️… You should really get an EV, and when you can, get solar as well. Don't let my story discourage you, but it's really something I want to see change, and more awareness raised for!