Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Article: EV Industry Needs One Charging Station Card To Rule Them All

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

Kipernicus

Model S Res#P1440
Dec 2, 2009
1,256
141
Belmont, CA
From Todd Woody at Forbes
Electric Car Industry Needs One Charging Station Card To Rule Them All

If you’re about to run out of juice and find yourself at an Ecotality charging station but only have a card for a ChargePoint station, you’ve run out of luck.
So I soon started accumulating charge station cards along with the hassle of maintaining separate accounts for each service.

General Electric has hooked up with PayPal to offer a solution of sorts, at least for GE’s own WattStations. If you download the WattStation Connect iPhone app, you can find GE charging stations in your vicinity. Once at the station you use your iPhone to scan a QR code on the charger to find out the charging rate and pay for the service through PayPal. Mobile meets mobility.

What is needed, of course, is for charging station companies to get together and agree on a single smartphone app that will operate all charging stations regardless of ownership.
There’s even a card that could do that and most everyone already carries at least one in their pocket along with their phone.
It’s called a credit card.
 
Last edited:
Why charging networks do not simply use credit cards instead of 20 different rfid cards is beyond me. It's almost like they are trying to fail.

because each credit card transaction costs them a fee (this is actually a pretty significant cost when most transactions are only a few dollars), they would rather only pay the fee once (by keeping a balance on your RFID card)..you can use credit cards (with chargepoint at least) either contactless at the EVSE or by calling the support number and giving your Credit Card information to the CSR.
 
I recently was at a CharePoint and realized I had left my ChargePoint card somewhere else.
I noticed a "PayPass" logo on the station, so I held my MasterCard with payPass logo up to the ChargePoint and it activated!
I think it was set for free mode (in a paid parking garage), so hopefully no bill will show up on my credit card.

Meanwhile I still tend to carry around multiple cards for the different systems. At least ChargePoint seems to be accepting different types.
Maybe they need a reciprocal agreement where ChargePoint stations can start accepting Blink cards, SemaConnect cards, etc.