It would seem that everyone involved in the electric vehicle industry are making all the beginner mistakes that make it very difficult for the industry to grow at a faster rate.
Here's my case in point. Last week, I needed to bring my BMW C-Evolution to the city of Rouen, living in Le Havre. That's a distance of 105% of the real range of the bike. Riding as low power as possible will still not make it, since there are some very steep hills.
I used Chargemap and found a few charging points towards the end of the itinerary. Great I thought. So I went to check it out by car, doing a scout trip.
Four charge points, each with a different charging/cable standard. So that already makes it much, much, more difficult.
Then the chargers. You need a badge to open them, not a credit card. So after wasting 2 hours looking for a place to get one, I finally fell upon a small office that actually would be able to deliver one. But there I fell upon the 2nd big problem; you need proof of residence of the area.
In other words, all the charge points in and around the city of Rouen requires you to live in that area. The same applies to where I live, only residents can use it (but it's free; the card and the juice).
So here I am, planning to make a "long" trip and find I needed to load up several cables that are useless out of my city.
And that's where it all falls to bits. Different standards for chargers, stupid civil servants/bureaucrats who can think further than their desk.
If there would only be one charger standard and chargers were either all free or at least all allow the use of credit cards, then things would be easier to buy an EV.
What do you think?
