davewill said:
edatoakrun said:
ANY credit /debit card, accepted at ANY DC charge point, with NO other requirement, is the inevitable free-market standard.
Government-planned DC installations, may take quite a while, to get there...
This has NOTHING to do with the government. It has to do with the EV charging companies being determined to "capture" the EV charging market. They are all dreaming of having large numbers of people paying them monthly fees for charging. Luckily that isn't going to work out and most of them will have to give it up and accept credit cards.
My comment was oversimplified, but correct (I believe) regarding all west coast installations, as being largely government planned, and financed, operations, so far.
But I accept your point, that many (less directly) subsidized DC charge stations, in other states, are adopting subscription models, at his time. This will, IMO, probably fail, over the longer term.
With Gasoline, the seller can at least claim a superior product, due to additives, etc, to "sell" a brand.
Electricity is the ultimate fungible product, except for those who want to pay more for "greener" kWh, and also believe that they can do so, while buying off the common grid.
With BEVs shorter range, (as compared to gas) will make "location, location, location" the primary interest of consumers, at first.
So, as long as Vendors have a location monopoly, they can sell subscriptions.
Once other "pay per kWh" DC charge points open near subscription ones, I just don't think that model is very likely to last long.