Electric cars are still being held back by a series of hindrances that the industry has to overcome in order to make them more appealing to the masses. Limited access to public charging stations is one of those obstacles, exacerbating the range anxiety issue, which prevents owners from making long-range electric car trips.
Serious Obstacle for Mass Adoption
But, even though the number of EV charging stations has increased substantially in recent years, charging an electric car is still a major challenge for many people. This is because different charging station networks are operated by different companies, which each of them requiring consumers to have an account with them so that they can use their charging ports.
Since the charging infrastructure in the United States is basically owned and operated by several companies, EV owners have to open accounts with various operators and carry multiple cards so that they can use stations from different networks. Also, they have to deal with different fees, pricing and subscription plans, which makes it that much more inconvenient.
Interoperability Might Be Key
That is why EV proponents have been calling for public charging network interoperability, as one of the prerequisites for a faster adoption of plug-in cars, and that’s exactly what a new initiative led by a couple of automakers and the country’s largest networks aims to achieve.
At the Los Angeles Auto Show, two car makers and three EV charging networks announced that they have formed the ROEV Association, in a bid to make EV charging more accessible. ROEV – which stands for “roaming electric vehicles” – is a partnership that includes BMW and Nissan, along with the three largest EV charging station operators: CarCharging/Blink, ChargePoint, and NRG eVgo, which own a combined 17,500 public chargers in the United States, amounting to 91% of all stations in the country.
“Driving an EV will be easier thanks to ROEV. The EV driver’s ability to find, and charge at, any member public station, using an EV charging network account of their choice, is paramount to a simple driving and charging experience,” said Simon Lonsdale, Chair of the Board of ROEV. “The ROEV Association is working to streamline EV charging access across multiple charging networks in order to help bring EVs further into the mainstream.”
This association will try to adopt interoperability standards, which will allow EV owners to use multiple networks without having to open separate accounts with each network. This would mean that drivers will have access to all public charging stations across the country, “much like bank cards make it possible to withdraw funds from any ATM”, making public charging much more convenient.
In the future, ROEV is expected to be expanded with the addition of a few more automakers, including Audi, GM, Honda, as well as electrical utility company Portland General Electric and and EV solutions company SemaConnect.