Every article on Electric vehicle charging infrastructure tends to revolve around three things; we complain about the charging speed, reliability of charging infrastructureAnd charger location. All three are important, but the conversation seems to have overlooked one important thing: How fees are paid. A string of mishaps while trying to recharge one Ioniq 5 During a long journey, I asked myself: Why is it so difficult to recharge an electric car in the US? With the US EV infrastructure in its current state, it’s hard to imagine people switching to EVs in bulk if it’s still hard to pay to recharge.
In case you lost it:
It all starts with a classic chair. I’m pretty sure Mark Zuckerberg was eavesdropping on my direct messages and noticed me complaining that I couldn’t find any cute furniture for my new apartment. Thanks to the miracle of the almighty Zuck, a small antique reseller in Dayton, Ohio popped up on my Facebook feed. She’s selling the prettiest, most gorgeous yellow vinyl chair from the 1960s, which happens to be the perfect size for both my living room and the apartment’s luggage area. Ioniq 5 I’m reviewing.
It was a man without wisdom; I paid the seller and then, two days after our first message, we arranged a time for me to pick up the chair from the seller’s inventory.
From my front door in Columbus, Ohio, to the seller in Dayton is not 66 miles. The Ioniq 5 has about 48% battery life left and shows a range of 98 miles, more than enough to get to Dayton. But predict that 98 miles will drop pretty quickly, since the route is mostly fast freeway driving. Ioniq 5’s performance at those speeds in colder temperatures isn’t great, but whatever; Calculations show there’s enough range to grab the chair and find a DC fast charging station.
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As I drive, the rangefinder adjusts its predictions. The Ioniq 5’s 98-mile range is practically 80 miles, but that’s okay. There’s plenty of juice to make it, though I wondered if I should stop and charge first, so I didn’t get to the point where there wasn’t enough left to get to the next charging station. I believe it will be fine; The Electrify America app said there was a charging station just five miles from where I was going to pick up the chair. Also, I was late and I don’t want to inconvenience the seller anymore.
Guaranteed enough, Ioniq 5 arrived at the seller’s location with a 9 percent battery and a specified range of 17 miles.
“Ah, time to make my way to the Electrify America station five miles away,” I told no one at all. I’ve driven over an hour on the highway to a location miles away, and now I’ll be refueling at the lightning speed of Electrify America and getting home before lunch. I won. I proved all the EV haters wrong. Driving and charging an EV is as easy as driving a scooter!
But it seems that the critics of the EV have come out. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Electrify America app and found that the nearest charging station was still not open for business. Even though it’s listed in the app as a regular station, clicking on the location brings up the message “Coming soon”. Why is this in the app?
When I got home, I contacted Electrify America to inquire about the experience. An Electrify America rep wrote back to me, noting that “If you are logged in to our Pass and Pass+ membership on the App, Coming Soon stations will be displayed — that is the case. of the Meijer (Dayton) store station. However — you are correct that it does not show up on the App when one is not logged into one of the memberships. We are checking on that. Sorry if it was an inconvenience for your travel.
I’d be happy to explain, but that information isn’t much help while I figure out what to do next in Dayton.
Descending but not exiting, and not wanting to be stuck in Dayton, I opted to navigate to the nearest Level 2 charging station, at an AAA office about 11.2 km away. At least I can have lunch nearby, work a bit, and then Ioniq 5 fully charged, drive to the Electrify America fast charging station on your way home.
The AAA charger does not cooperate. Level 2 chargers, operated by Blink, can be activated with an app or via a QR code on the station. When I get to the terminal, my application refuses to connect to Blink’s server. Scanning the QR code did nothing but take me to Blink’s website, which has no way to log into my account, initialize the charger, or pay for the charging service.
I was stuck with an EV at the charger that didn’t work. There’s about 12 miles of range shown on the Ioniq 5’s dash — not enough to risk driving to another Level 2 charger that might not work. Blink’s server is down? What’s wrong with my phone?
No, it’s more stupid than that. Turned out, Blink replaced its app at the end of 2022 and the version installed on my phone is deprecated. There’s no notification when Blink switches apps and even if it does I don’t know because there aren’t many Blink-branded stations near my house. In the end, I sorted that out and charged the Ioniq 5 enough to get to the Electrify America station, where I had enough juice to go home.
Somehow, the story doesn’t even end there. A day later, the logic board in my iPhone died, making my phone brick. Thank god for AppleCare, but when I got to the mall I realized I couldn’t even take advantage of the free charging stations. They are ChargePoint-branded and therefore use RFID tags stored in your Apple Wallet. Since I can’t use my Apple Wallet, I have no way to start charging.
I know this unusually humorous error may seem silly to most EV enthusiasts, who would surely claim that what I went through was no big deal. I would even agree – it’s both fun and really frustrating. But I don’t just complain to validate my own experiences and feelings. This is a real problem that must be addressed if we are to want car buyers to accept the electric vehicles that automakers are rapidly introducing.
Gas stations are a known number and are accessible almost anywhere there is a road. It’s simple to swipe your card or pay in cash, fill up on gas and leave. For now, however, EV charging involves a complex series of steps with complex applications that don’t work consistently. Older drivers with the money to buy an electric car probably won’t be tech-savvy enough to waste time fiddling with lousy apps. As EVs enter the driveways of ordinary tech-savvy people, it’s time for someone to make sure the EV infrastructure is both functional and easy enough for even the most computer illiterate driver to see. can use. Normal people won’t accept broken apps and bad UX. If EVs remain as difficult to use and recharge, they will continue to buy and run their easy-to-use gas-powered cars.
Come on, guys. Just install a card reader on the front of the machine and call it a day. It is not difficult.
