We still don’t have a single standard for paying for electric car charging outside the home. There is a wealth of applications from carriers and car manufacturers, charging chips that don’t offer the best security, according to Norsys, and many different payment solutions.
Everyone wants a delivery and charging solution, but only Tesla has achieved this for their own cars.
Teknisk Ukeblad has several Articles I wrote about the intricacies behind shipping clutter. For example, Audi launched one Delivery & Shipping Solution in 2018 In their e-tron models, but the standard was trained for various reasons, in part because it was technically complex with a third party, the so-called mobility service provider, who was scanning the car’s digital certificate for the charging point operator.
The battle for customers
The dispute over the standard is due to the fact that this is a customer battle between auto manufacturers and freight operators. Now more than 80 percent of new car sales are electric sales, and new combinations are emerging among charging operators, charging manufacturers and electric companies. They compete for benefits programs, product sales, and service subscriptions.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications received on March 1 a report From the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the Norwegian Environment Agency, which was to form a knowledge base for creating a fast charging infrastructure. He describes it as approx. 4000 fast chargers in Norway, half of which have a charging capacity of more than 150 kW. More than 1,000 of them belong to the Tesla network. By 2025, charging is expected to increase to 9,000 chargers, and by 2030, the need is estimated to be between 10,000 and 14,000 chargers.
anti-consumer
The report describes current charging solutions as not being consumer friendly. 75 percent of electric car drivers experience fast charging as unnecessarily complicated. Several surveys, including from the Electric Vehicle Association, show that electric vehicle owners want a one-stop charging and payment solution, the opportunity to compare prices, fast charging and at least low prices! We can’t help but forget the latter as long as we suffer from a European energy crisis.
88 percent want a better payment solution, and up to 71 percent want to pay by card. One in five experiences charge anxiety. Therefore, consumers feel that they should charge when they “can” and not when they “must”. We recently received a sign of industry resistance from Tesla Supercharger CEO Jeroen van Tilburg, who at the EVS35 Electric Vehicle Conference signaled a separate event Customer Survey How so few respondents requested card payment.
demo example
The authorities, and perhaps the European Union in this context, may have to decide which charging technology will become the current standard. The choice was also made between CCS and Chademo as the contact. Almost no freight operator offers direct card payment. Koples charging stations offer card payment via the browser, which is a cumbersome solution, but Greenstation in Bergen showed how seamless card payment can work. At their demo station, you’ll learn – via the big screens – how much it costs to charge up to 80 percent of a full battery along the way. Many would like a kilowatt rate at no extra cost to the charging time.
The station also has a sign recognition feature that identifies the vehicle if you’ve used the station before and keeps track of which queues and which charging socket needs to be plugged in. Here you can also pay directly at the bar or via the company’s app.
Surveys in the Department of Transportation’s knowledge base show that many people want a roof over cargo poles, such as at gas stations. Greenstation has now created a superstructure where they will have turf roofs and solar cells. Energy production is stored in battery packs. Now a food truck is only needed in order for the service to be good enough for electric drivers!
market struggle
Unless the government or the European Union calls for the introduction of card payments and thus also the rebuilding of most charging stations, the battle now appears to be between Plug & Charge and Autocharge. Statkraft-owned Mer is investing in Autocharge both in Norway and other countries. It is based on the same Tesla system, with the media access control address specified in the vehicle. The implementation requires some rebuilding, also because the company will offer payment with Vipps.
VW Group will prioritize Plug & Charge technology for all of its new electric vehicles because they have an ownership interest in this solution through a third party, the Hubject Company. They boast being the world’s largest in roaming with 55,000 charging points and have – alongside the VW Group – BMW, Daimler, Siemens, Bosch and Enel X as owners.
What technology will eventually become the current standard, no one knows. But we know that the market battle now being fought between auto manufacturers and freight operators needs to be strengthened.
After nearly a decade with partially complicated charging systems and a lot of frustration, it’s time for everyone who drives something other than a Tesla, to also have good charging experiences.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
