How Many Charging Apps Do You Have?

[Fmc]

Or am I just doing this wrong? I just recently completed a vacation in a Bolt (yes not a Rivian). I currently have:

Charge Point
EVGo
Electrify American
PlugShare
ABRP
MyChevrolet

Is there a best practice for charging or is this just the reality until RAN is built out?


I will not go on a rant about how Hertz is doing EV adoption no favors.

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[SSteveEV]

I'm now onto page two in my EV app folder.
18 apps including the Rivian app. Most of them used only once and if I can avoid an app to charge I default to that.

 

[evhelphub]

I only have 6:

- Electrify America
- EVgo
- ChargePoint
- Blink (almost never use)
- ABetterRouteplanner (must have)
- PlugShare (must have)

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

too many! ?

 

[Sevn86]

I have 5 currently but that’s because I had to download them for my trip back home over Labor Day weekend. ?

 

[Craigins]

I use:

Charge Point
EVGo
Electrify American
PlugShare
ABRP

I think it is pretty standard for knowledgeable EV owners. The top 3 may change depending on geography.

Set up accounts, download the apps, plan your trips, double check the stations the night before and the morning of the trip.

I've seen plenty of people driving EVs with ICE mindsets when it comes to "refueling" and they are never happy.

Knowing is half the battle, GO JOE!

 

[superfly_snook]

I will not go on a rant about how Hertz is doing EV adoption no favors.

you got me at least curious here. We rented from Hertz this summer on a family vacation and got a Model 3 and it was a great experience. There was a supercharger location super close to where we were staying and it was just plug and charge. I could imagine with one of their other EVs (Polestar?) it might be more complicated.

 

[NY_Rob]

Zero apps.. I charge the Rivian at home.

Road trips are done in our Model 3...

Once Tesla opens up their network and Rivian sends us the NACS adapter, I'll start taking the R1T in road trips using the Tesla SC network. No desire to deal with the EA carnival experience.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I've got seven and only ever charged outside of the house one time in six months. I hate the wasted space on my device, but I guess "better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them"? ?

 

[Fmc]

you got me at least curious here. We rented from Hertz this summer on a family vacation and got a Model 3 and it was a great experience. There was a supercharger location super close to where we were staying and it was just plug and charge. I could imagine with one of their other EVs (Polestar?) it might be more complicated.

The bolt had no internal navigation system so I had to use a handful of apps (forgot to mention electric circuit in Canada). I actually enjoyed the bolt compared to my M3. It was all manageable and I mainly charged at hotels. But anyone unfamiliar with EVs will have a tough time adjusting to the lack of charging infrastructure that is provided by hertz.

 

[BigSkies]

This whole “open an app to charge” is one of the dumbest UX decisions ever made IMO. A significant percentage of charger issues are related to this design decision.

First off, plugging in, opening an app, finding the charger is needlessly complicated. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s still poor payment flow design. It introduces numerous points of potential customer confusion and system failure.

Plug & charge should be an expectation. Barring that, a simple credit card reader should work. I’d also consider the Apple Pay versions (like ChargePoint has) acceptable.

While I don’t know the design factors behind the charger, I imagine the app system is adding some additional points of failure on the back end too. It probably requires more a complex and failure prone OS within the charger, additional requirements for network connectivity, and additional hardware components that can fail.

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