tesleaf said:
Yes. If you want to charge anywhere in public, it would be a very good idea that you look at the Plugshare ratings and recent checkins to see if it's worth the trouble. It might be always broken or blocked or tricky to find.
Plugshare was run by Recargo that recently got bought: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/innogy-acquires-recargo-inc-300722444.html. There are some stations where you can pay via Plugshare. I've never done that yet.
tesleaf said:
Blink is a company.
Is ChargePoint also an independent company like Blink?
Blink and Chargepoint are separate companies that run their own charging networks.
Almost every single Chargepoint station is NOT owned by Chargepoint and therefore, the prices are set by the station owner.
EVgo and Semaconnect are other charging providers.
tesleaf said:
Can I use my iPhone or Android phone with their App and still get the discounted rate without using their cards -ie. InCard?
I've never used Blink but I don't believe there are any discounts for using their app vs. card.
For Chargepoint, there's definitely no discount for using their app vs. card. I use Chargepoint almost every weekday to use free L2 Chargepoint EVSEs at my work. I almost always start sessions with their cards as using a phone is clumsy, at best. Apple Watch is easier but has some other limitations for my ues cases.
Side note: The brief video at https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/QUALITY/STORY/THEDETAILS/ shows them pouring water over the CHAdeMO inlet as part of testing. I'd seen a few other videos like this before.