When you buy a petrol or diesel car, you are free to choose where to refuel it. You can buy fuel at any petrol station without an issue, prices are pretty much the same, and you don't need separate accounts, apps or cards for each individual petrol station. So what's the problem with EV charging points?
Charging points are installed by different companies, much like petrol stations, but without a physical payment system on-site (a credit card reader for instance), most of them require you to use a phone application, RFID card (think oyster card), or a key fob. So if you want to use company A's charger and then company B's charger, you'll need either both apps or cards or whatever, but double. Now scale that problem to 3 chargers from 3 different companies (at home, at work and at your grocery store) and voila! you're annoyed.
Even if you can deal with having an extra wallet just for cards that charge your car, imagine having to pay all of the monthly subscriptions fees (on top of paying for electricity that you charge). That's actually the case! And just to crank up the heat, each one charges a different price per kWh. That's like Shell charging £1.28/litre and Esso charging £1.89/litre. Except it's even worse than that - 2 chargers from the same company, but in different locations can charge 2x difference. Throw in some plug-in fees, overstay fees, parking fees, minimum charge fees, fees/minute, reservation fees and you got yourself the perfect EV infrastructure of today.
Why don't we just have a single app for all networks, one unified price, no weird add-on fees and no cards? That's (shameless plug) exactly what we do. With a Bonnet subscription you just select a monthly plan based on your public charging needs, and you get access to all the networks and charging as much as you want. Check out our pricing options to find a plan for you!
When you buy a petrol or diesel car, you are free to choose where to refuel it. You can buy fuel at any petrol station without an issue, prices are pretty much the same, and you don't need separate accounts, apps or cards for each individual petrol station. So what's the problem with EV charging points?
Charging points are installed by different companies, much like petrol stations, but without a physical payment system on-site (a credit card reader for instance), most of them require you to use a phone application, RFID card (think oyster card), or a key fob. So if you want to use company A's charger and then company B's charger, you'll need either both apps or cards or whatever, but double. Now scale that problem to 3 chargers from 3 different companies (at home, at work and at your grocery store) and voila! you're annoyed.
Even if you can deal with having an extra wallet just for cards that charge your car, imagine having to pay all of the monthly subscriptions fees (on top of paying for electricity that you charge). That's actually the case! And just to crank up the heat, each one charges a different price per kWh. That's like Shell charging £1.28/litre and Esso charging £1.89/litre. Except it's even worse than that - 2 chargers from the same company, but in different locations can charge 2x difference. Throw in some plug-in fees, overstay fees, parking fees, minimum charge fees, fees/minute, reservation fees and you got yourself the perfect EV infrastructure of today.
Why don't we just have a single app for all networks, one unified price, no weird add-on fees and no cards? That's (shameless plug) exactly what we do. With a Bonnet subscription you just select a monthly plan based on your public charging needs, and you get access to all the networks and charging as much as you want. Check out our pricing options to find a plan for you!
When you buy a petrol or diesel car, you are free to choose where to refuel it. You can buy fuel at any petrol station without an issue, prices are pretty much the same, and you don't need separate accounts, apps or cards for each individual petrol station. So what's the problem with EV charging points?
Charging points are installed by different companies, much like petrol stations, but without a physical payment system on-site (a credit card reader for instance), most of them require you to use a phone application, RFID card (think oyster card), or a key fob. So if you want to use company A's charger and then company B's charger, you'll need either both apps or cards or whatever, but double. Now scale that problem to 3 chargers from 3 different companies (at home, at work and at your grocery store) and voila! you're annoyed.
Even if you can deal with having an extra wallet just for cards that charge your car, imagine having to pay all of the monthly subscriptions fees (on top of paying for electricity that you charge). That's actually the case! And just to crank up the heat, each one charges a different price per kWh. That's like Shell charging £1.28/litre and Esso charging £1.89/litre. Except it's even worse than that - 2 chargers from the same company, but in different locations can charge 2x difference. Throw in some plug-in fees, overstay fees, parking fees, minimum charge fees, fees/minute, reservation fees and you got yourself the perfect EV infrastructure of today.
Why don't we just have a single app for all networks, one unified price, no weird add-on fees and no cards? That's (shameless plug) exactly what we do. With a Bonnet subscription you just select a monthly plan based on your public charging needs, and you get access to all the networks and charging as much as you want. Check out our pricing options to find a plan for you!
