ABB Fast Chargers Now Take Credit Cards
Originally published on Sustainnovate.
By Henry Lindon
ABB’s Terra 53 DC electric vehicle fast charging stations will now be credit card compatible, thereby giving owners/operators greater flexibility as far as customer use goes, according to a recent press release.
The new “easily integrated” option for credit card compatibility can either be purchased as an option for new stations or as an addition to existing ones.
“Membership-based payment systems have distinct advantages for electric vehicle drivers in terms of local convenience, incentives, and reliable charging management across a region,”stated Andy Bartosh, Director of ABB’s Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure business for the Americas. “However, as vehicle batteries get bigger, and charging options grow, more drivers will be roaming into different geographies. A credit card or smartphone payment system offers peace of mind that drivers can use a charging station right when they need it, regardless of who is managing the network.”
“There are parallels for EV charging and the early mobile phone industry. Privacy and coverage issues were very frustrating for users who traveled outside of their home region. Developing better roaming solutions helped spur growth of mobile device use,” continued Bartosh. “Today, drivers know they can use a charger even if they don’t have the right membership card, relying on a credit card or smart phone transaction to get them to their next destination.”
“The global demand for the most common payment methods continues to grow as business models mature and the everyday user wants to use the payment solution they are familiar with,” noted Joost Van Abeelen, ABB’s Global Director of Connected Services. “ABB has charging stations with credit card payment terminals around the world.”
Payment platforms such as “Apple Pay” and “Android Pay” are reportedly compatible.
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Fueling a gasoline-powered car and recharging an electric one are becoming more and more similar. Great move.
So how much are the total charges? Does it include the most transaction fee? Charged by the hour or by the kWH?
How does it compare to TOU rates at home?
These are the bottom line questions if EV charging stations will fail or succeed.
And these info are never posted by any article writer.
This article is about the charging station manufacturer, not any company selling electricity to EVs. So your questions are like asking Ford what your local taxi company will charge for a ride.
Save the questions for a relevant article. =)
So I should read this like: Ford is offer option to Taxi cab companies, but it might cost them an arm and a leg, we didn’t ask. So you may never see this anywhere. You are saying the article is NOT relevant to EV owners, or even if any charging network will use this option.
Well, he could have asked what a station with a card reader would have cost compared to one without a card reader. But considering that you can easily get a simple card reader for $100 and that just the charging station easily costs $20-40k not including power installations, ground work or buying/leasing the land/parking spot it’s likely that it costs almost the same as before.
If we want to know if EV charger stations companies will buy this charger and what they will charge their customers then we will have to ask Ecotricity, FastNED, Clever or whatever relevant charging station company is near where you want to go.
The article IS very relevant to EV owners though. Because a simple card transaction as an added option would make life a lot easier when on the road compared to being member of the right charging network, having the right card or app or whatever.
One of the problems is that you can’t just get to whatever charger and know that you will be able to easily pay for a charge (especially for us who have been trying to take our EVs on the road to other areas and countries).
The quick answer to this is that those who are selling electricity to the
public on a retail level – such as owners of EVSE infrastructure dealing with owners of EVs who plugging in away from home – are forbidden to meter it by the kWh in most states . . . and the law does vary from state to state at this point.
Hence, most EVSE operators in most places are forced to meter their electricity by time (minutes, seconds, etc.,) which is a far than optimal way of doing it. Those of us with 3.3kW chargers in our cars (me with my i-MiEV and owners of early Leafs) get the short end of the stick. Owners of EVs with 6.6kW chargers (or greater) get twice as much (or more) electricity in the same amount of time.
Lobby your state government officials (the Corporation Commissions
or other such agencies that oversee utility rates and policies, etc) to amend the laws. This has already occurred in some states. New York and Georgia, I think, are examples of where it’s happened.
Moving back to the subject of the article . . . I think that getting public EVSEs operating on credit/debit cards is a long overdue business model upgrade . . . especially now that we’re witnessing the roll out more secure cards with embedded computer chips. Having to carry a bunch of individually branded RFID cards in the glove compartment and maintaining all those accounts was novel when EVs first came of the scene a few years ago. But it’s a novelty that’s wearing off very quickly.
The two major operators here in Norway are charging by the minute, and it works out very well by avoiding that people occupy the fast chargers for a very long time to try to squeeze in those last 15% of charge into the battery. I have a C-Zero (i-MiEV “clone”), and it’s actually charging very efficiently from the Chademo port. The rate here i NOK 2.50 / minute. That’s about 30 US cents. A typical 30% to 80% charge takes 15-20 minutes.
Sure. L-3/DC CHAdeMO is going to be pretty much the same from one car brand to another, since the actual charger is in the big box with the cable/plug attached to it. If the flow on the machine is set to 50Ah, charging speed will be dependent upon the size of the battery in the car. Little cars with little batteries, like ours, will spend less time plugged in, Hence, we’ll be charged less than an EV with a larger battery.
It’s L-2/AC charging, where the charger itself is actually in the car (that’s why L-2 machines are correctly called EVSEs and not “chargers”) and with charging speed standards imposed by the auto manufacturers who made those cars, when we run into pricing discrepancies imposed by time. Not sure about Norway but many US-based L-2 EVSEs have now moved beyond the free “honeymoon” period and it cost money to use them. The guy with the newer and/or more expensive EV with a faster internal charger (6.6kW, etc.) is going to get a much better deal under this scenario than you and I. Also, I’d rather not have a glove compartment of “member” RFID cards to worry about, even if it all was still free.
Last paragraph: fully agree.
EVs do so much good, I would make them free until we have at least 1% on the cars on the road in the U.S.