Electric vehicle drivers are being hit by issues with booking and paying for charging that could hamper EV demand.

The charging experience remains overly complicated

A survey by EV payment specialist Paythru, carried out in partnership with the EV Café, found many frustrations that need to be addressed to support faster EV uptake

The analysis of 200 EV drivers found drivers still use multiple payment methods, despite an often-stated preference for universal solutions. Only 13% of people have a single payment option they use 100% of the time. Most have three or more regular options that they switch between, such as contactless and a couple of different apps, each making up less than a quarter of their overall usage.

“This level of variation suggests the majority of users are being forced to use multiple payment options to navigate an overly complex charging system,” explained Sara Sloman, Paythru’s chief strategy officer.

The survey also reveals a high level of problems at the charger. Almost nine in 10 (87%) of respondents said they’ve had to download a new app at the charging point at least once, in order to pay. A total of 80% have faced app payment problems due to mobile connectivity issues. And more than half (56%) have had their card rejected.

Furthermore, 45% of drivers said they’ve had to phone up to make a payment, and 61% have left the charge point because of unacceptable payment options.

Pre-authorisation – where money is reserved against a driver’s payment card prior to the charge, with the charge then deducted – is a major bugbear. Some 90% of respondents said they have been asked for pre-authorisation when charging, and 80% have experienced at least one issue with it. These include being unclear about what they were committing to (49%), waiting more than a day for a pre-authorisation fee to be refunded (49%), and multiple pre-authorisation fees on their card for a single charge (36%).

Keith Brown, Paythru’s managing director, warned that as the EV market moves from early adopters to mainstream drivers, expectations will rise and intolerance will fall for the type of problems highlighted by this survey.

“People have little patience for complex and cumbersome EV charging transactions,” he explained. “The charging experience remains overly complicated, creating what we call ‘Payment Anxiety: the feeling of going to charge and knowing there’s a very real chance – even if it’s a small one – that the charge point won’t work the way you want for one reason or another.

“Until now, the EV industry has understandably focused on hardware. But the problems we see causing driver frustrations now are mostly linked to the software used in the charging process, and the experience that comes with it. The time has come to concentrate on designing software that will solve most, if not all, of the issues raised in this report, in order to make EVs accessible to all.”

Download a copy of the report ‘Overcoming Payment Anxiety in EV Charging’ – which includes the full survey data and Paythru’s analysis – here.