[andyswarbs]

In the UK the public charging market seems a mess with so many charging schemes, much of which is very opaque until you get used to it. Ideally we just want to use a credit card, but in the current mess we need apps and rfid cards.

I think I'm okay with the apps but currently trying to decide which if any rfid cards to get. Polar at £8 per month seems fine if you're charging at public stations most days, but that's not me. I think the genie point rfid with a one off cost of £9 sounds fine for my purposes which is more aimed at lobg trips for holidays, seeing friends and family.

All comments welcome.

 

[80698]

Just look on Zap Map at the routes you drive, see who operates the networks along those roads and sign up to the companies you're likely to use.

Some people can get by with just a credit card and a couple of apps. Others have to sign up to tons of different regional networks and pay varying prices for it.

I personally have a huge stack of cards and fobs, with a handful of charging apps too. But it only makes sense if you're going to use them.

As a side note, only order the Geniepoint card if you're not ordering any others. You can assign any RFID card to work on their chargers without paying for theirs.

 

[srichards]

New Motion/Shell recharge do a free one. I think Alfa Power might as well so there's a couple you can get to use with Geniepoint instead of coughing up £9. They let you use someone else's to link to their system so that's quite useful.

 

[208's Plenty]

I agree that it's a mess. I used to be able to go in to any filling station, put fuel into the car and pay for it, by cash, debit card or credit card.

Electric charging points should be the same (with the exception of cash - due to the charging site location), but as we have all discovered they are not.

My contactless RFID Bank cards do work on these machines due to a rolling security code (or words to that effect). I have a Pod Point Wall Box, I was never provided with a Pod Point card.

Someone on here was trying to get hold of an Alfa Power RFID device, but it may have been a dongle and not a card, which I think most machines require.

I think it may have been mentioned before, isn't the Government insisting that these sites have access to all EV users allowing a single payment option? If so when, I'm not an early BEV adopter, but I am a new user and find it all too complex. Many car journo's doing BEV tests say the same.

 

[electric_dreams]

New Motion/Shell recharge do a free one. I think Alfa Power might as well so there's a couple you can get to use with Geniepoint instead of coughing up £9. They let you use someone else's to link to their system so that's quite useful.

To add to this, Shell/NewMotion have roaming agreements with quite a few other networks - I think this includes Alfa Power. So actually with the Shell/NewMotion card you can register it to GeniePoint and use it with Alfa Power, and have one card for the three networks (plus some others - and it'll activate some of the contactless networks if you need that or want to avoid money being tied up whilst waiting for the network to charge the correct amount)

 

[208's Plenty]

And I currently have money tied up (thanks for reminding me) with Genie Point but can't get a card to work with them.

 

[badguy]

I'm hoping Octopus Energy manage to get more partners signed up to this - Octopus Energy

 

[JDleaf]

I'm at the point now where I’ll only use contactless. The others can go whistle. No apps that you have to have credit on, no subscriptions, no RFID. If I have to have an exception to the rule, it’s Ecotricity, because it’s fairly essential on motorway trips, but at least you don’t need credit in your account.

 

[AndyK]

I have a huge stack of RFID cards, but I haven't taken them out of the glove box in well over a year now.

A smartphone and the Polar Plus card (technically even that isn't strictly necessary anymore) is more than enough to get me by, with Apple Pay for the few chargers that only accept credit cards. It's really not as much of a mess as people make out.

What do I mean by 'get me by'? Well over 250kWh of public charging a month....

 

[RichA]

Seemingly not a month goes by without another unification company pops up. The only one so far that seems different was One app. One Payment. All EV Charge Points | Bonnet | London who will use smartphone NFC to act as a RFID card, this will be handy on chargers that only take RFID cards.
But who knows where we will end up

 

[AndyK]

Seemingly not a month goes by without another unification company pops up. The only one so far that seems different was One app. One Payment. All EV Charge Points | Bonnet | London who will use smartphone NFC to act as a RFID card, this will be handy on chargers that only take RFID cards.
But who knows where we will end up

All these tiny startups trying to be 'the one solution' really do nothing but confuse the whole matter further. I'm amazed any of the networks want anything to do with them...

Edit: Just looked at Bonnet...it's an interesting idea, but without any information on where you can use it, what possible use is it? I'm not paying potentially £50 a month (I'd actually pay more than that by the looks of it) if it's only available on one or two networks!

 

[Todor]

I'm not sure it was mentioned, but GeniePoint CPS does not require you to get their RFID! You can add any card to their system and use it as if it is theirs. So no need to pay for theirs.

 

[EdH]

But you do need to deposit money into an account so I believe. It suits me anyway, but I have made a decision to only ever use chargers with payment by contactless bank card.