EU Passes Law To Blanket Highways With Fast EV Chargers by End of 2025 (theverge.com) 98
The Council of the EU has adopted new rules intended to make it much easier for EV owners to travel across Europe, while simultaneously helping to reduce the output of harmful greenhouse gases. From a report: The new regulation is set to benefit owners of electric cars and vans in three ways: It reduces range anxiety by expanding the EV charging infrastructure along Europe's main highways, it makes payments "at the pump" easier without requiring an app or subscription, and ensures pricing and availability is clearly communicated to avoid surprises. From 2025 onward, the new regulation requires fast charging stations offering at least 150kW of power to be installed every 60km (37mi) along the EU's Trans-European Transport Network, or (TEN-T) system of highways, the bloc's main transport corridor. The fast charging network along European highways is already pretty robust, I discovered on a recent 3,000km (2,000 mile) roadtrip with a VW ID Buzz. This new law could all but eliminate range anxiety for those sticking to TEN-T roads.
pay at the pump with card or cash is needed (Score:3, Insightful)
pay at the pump with card or cash is needed.
also add to no requiring an app or subscription.
NO NON DEALER REPAIR black lists of cars.
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When all the countries over there joined the EU, did they pretty much cede most all autonomy of being a separate country and independent government to the overrule of the EU councils, and laws passed?
I'm not at all sure how that works over there...I seem to rarely hear "France passes a law..." or "Greece passes..." it seems to always be the EU.
And from my limited knowledge...the EU governmental bodies aren't really all that answerable to the voting populaces of the EU countries...?
Anyw
Re:pay at the pump with card or cash is needed (Score:5, Informative)
One of the entire main points of forming the EU was to reduce friction on initiatives like this which affect the entire region since driving from country to country is common over there. Similar to how the US federal government regulates intersate commerce. Since the road networks traverse the entire region it makes sense that this would be an EU project.
Similar to hwo the EU has the Schengen Area which allows EU citizens to pass into other EU nations without having to clear customs every time. Imagine if the US had customs at every state border? It would be a mess (and I believe it was messy before the EU was established)
I don't believe that says that France or Germany cannot also have their own EV charger initiatives inside their own borders. Things like healthcare systems are all nation specific.
So not, they did not cede all authority to the EU but have a centralized body for concerns that affect the entire region rather than having multiple laws in multiple countries.
Also the EU is a democratic institution, every country in it has representatives elected to it, it only exists at the behest of it's member nations and like we saw eith the UK any nation can in fact remove itself if it so pleases.
An actual European can probably elaborate more.
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True but that would require every member nation to vote for those measures through their EU representatives who as I understand it are really in this case just literally passing along the behest of the nation itself. It's not like the EU can "go rogue" and do stuff the nations it's made of don't agree to.
And they do have a sortof constitution that again, every member nation ratifies: https://www.europarl.europa.eu... [europa.eu]
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So not, they did not cede all authority to the EU but have a centralized body for concerns that affect the entire region rather than having multiple laws in multiple countries.
Also the EU is a democratic institution, every country in it has representatives elected to it, it only exists at the behest of it's member nations and like we saw eith the UK any nation can in fact remove itself if it so pleases.
That. Plus, this "news" is not really newsworthy: highways in Europe already have a good coverage. Except for holidays time, when everyone is taking their car at the same time (renting in Europe is usually from Saturday to Saturday, no idea if that's the same in the US), and some people had to wait 40 mins to charge their car [techno-car.fr]. However, IMHO, this is not really bad: it happens about once a year, doesn't affect you if you manage to leave a bit earlier or a bit late, and more charging stations are added every
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So not, they did not cede all authority to the EU but have a centralized body for concerns that affect the entire region rather than having multiple laws in multiple countries.
Also the EU is a democratic institution, every country in it has representatives elected to it, it only exists at the behest of it's member nations and like we saw eith the UK any nation can in fact remove itself if it so pleases.
That. Plus, this "news" is not really newsworthy: highways in Europe already have a good coverage. Except for holidays time, when everyone is taking their car at the same time (renting in Europe is usually from Saturday to Saturday, no idea if that's the same in the US), and some people had to wait 40 mins to charge their car [techno-car.fr]. However, IMHO, this is not really bad: it happens about once a year, doesn't affect you if you manage to leave a bit earlier or a bit late, and more charging stations are added every year.
The real problem in Europe is not highways charging stations. The problem is that after leaving the highway and going into the countryside (where I am on vacation at the moment), the network of charging stations is not dense enough. Not a problem when you have a rental that allows EVs charging, but a bit more problematic otherwise.
The solution is simple. The EU needs to pass laws requiring EU citizens obtain a timed permit as to when and where citizens can operate their cars.
That way the Central Committee of the EU can control vehicle traffic and ensure those unfair and unjust waits are eliminated for ALL EU drivers.
/sarcasm
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I know you meant your comment as sarcasm, but you raise a valid point: in the context of a finite resource, what is the best way to ration it?
There are only two ways:
- either by price: and only those who are wealthy enough can afford it. With that option, you only have to wish you are on the right side of the equation. One other aspect that people forget with that option is also that given we are talking about a finite resource, the price will go up, and the likehood that you stay on the right side of the e
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I'll take it without limitations and deal with the traffic and crowds.
I'd rather have the freedom to decide for myself whether I want to put up with it, OR alter my schedule around it.
I don't want the govt mandating it to me with rations or price/taxation as a carrot.
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That's what I said.
Most people prefer the illusion of freedom, instead of actual freedom. They (you) don't even realize it, that's the beauty of it.
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Here in the US, we do have "customs". Try driving into Cali from another state, as they will search your car for fruit, and if Governor Newsom has his way, for guns as well.
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The med fly invasion cost California growers billions. They do it to protect one the state biggest industries.
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That's basically it. As well as travel, there is the issue if common standards that make it easier for companies to trade across the EU. Standards for chargers and mains voltage are the same in every EU country (CCS2 or CHAdeMO plugs, card payment terminal) so one model of charger can be used everywhere.
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Yeah but U.S. states are not really independent from each other and can't leave. It is basically like federal germany on a larger level but it's the role of the EU that often creates irritation.
The EU was basically founded as an economic partnership of independent states. However, it pretty much has become like a superstate now with own parliaments, courts and borders. Nevertheless, politicians and press still treat it like foreign policy when in reality it acts like a federal government that pretty much di
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An actual European can probably elaborate more.
You don't need to be an actual European to experience this. As a non-EU citizen (presumably north America) you may enter the EU and experience most of the benefits, the SIM card you buy in France will work in all 27 EU nations plus a few that aren't off the same credit. You can hop on a train or drive down to Spain without anyone stopping you and asking for papers (although the Gendarmes are almost as humourless as the Germans if you're stopped on French roads), you can use the same currency everywhere.
D
Re: pay at the pump with card or cash is needed (Score:2)
You don't hear about it, because the EU does most of the heavy lifting these days The EU passes directive out of the EU elected congress. Then countries pass laws internally that follow the EU law. Since I think that EU laws do not directly apply.
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If you pulled your head out of your ass and did some reading you might learn something.
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Kind of. They are working on strengthening the federation. Some states are resisting and some are pushing it. (sound familiar?)
As it stands now, the individual states must (are required to) pass local legislation to implement the directives passed by the union-as-a-whole. They are not all required to implement the laws in the same way -but the effect must be generally the same. (In European law, a clear intent of the law is what counts rather than the US where the exact wording of the law is what counts
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Honest question...
When all the countries over there joined the EU, did they pretty much cede most all autonomy of being a separate country and independent government to the overrule of the EU councils, and laws passed?....
It's hard to take your question as a good-faith honest question when the information you seek is readily available from the EU's web site, or on Wikipedia, and when your question is off topic from the matter being discussed in this thread.
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It seemed easier to get a quick summation from someone that actually lives there...which it proved to be.
Geez, when did people get so touchy on /. about asking simple questions?
Not everything is political....
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I seem to rarely hear "France passes a law..." or "Greece passes..." it seems to always be the EU
Because you're not listening to the French or Greek regional news. The EU is bigger so it's of broader interest.
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I'm not at all sure how that works over there...I seem to rarely hear "France passes a law..." or "Greece passes..." it seems to always be the EU.
France and/or Greece etc. do not seek to pass their own regulations, they lobby others to create a set of EU countries agreeing on a new idea. When they believe there is have enough support within EU for a proposal to be approved, they ask the Commission to please think of a proposal on the matter (only the Commission can put new ideas on paper).
It's the purpose of the EU to coordinate legislation actions and do things together to avoid each Member States make initiatives each in their corner and we end up
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Honest question...
Bullshit. I have personally schooled you on how the EU works in the past on this very forum. But to remind you, EU laws are accepted by the EU council which is made up of the heads of state for EU nations. So no. Not a single nation has ceded autonomy.
I seem to rarely hear "France passes a law..." or "Greece passes..." it seems to always be the EU.
Bullshit. Normally this would be readership bias. But you are here on Slashdot. A site where 7 stories have had the words "france passes law" in their headline:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
h [slashdot.org]
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2. Powers (Competencies): Thru the EU treaties, t
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Oh, everything: if we are independent of the oil, we do not need the US anymore. Or something like that.
Kindergarten reasoning.
Oh, this is angelosphere. Can't expect much more from him.
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The US will continue to pay for their security because it benefits the US in a myriad of ways to maintain it's status as the global hegemon and military leader.
Now the Ukraine war has probably lit ore a fire under NATO members to increase defense spending so we will see, the 2014 agreement was for all members to reach 2% of GDP on defense by 2025. Predictibly the countries closer to the east are already there like Croatia, Greece and Latvia.
An example of increased spending is that almost every NATO member
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the usual type of comment from someone who doesn't have a clue how a transition works and how long it can take.
Sounds fun (Score:4, Funny)
Blanket Highways With Fast EV Chargers
I love obstacle courses. :-)
[Wait. Not actually *on* the highways? Darn.]
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I don't know... (Score:1, Insightful)
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Price for sure is the absolute #1 issue with EV's right now. There still is not the mythical 300mi/$30k EV yet.
Hoever this is very, very much in flux a the moment as there are about a dozen battery and vehichle factories being constructed right now in the US alone.
The next 3-5 years could bring about the sea change EV's, basically speaking about the EV market today as if it will stay that way is a bit shortsighted in my opinion. It's a bit like saying Personal Computers will always be in the thousands of
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I am very much a "car guy" and I am quite sure my next vehicle will be a used EV. (I would never buy a new car.)
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I have seen no evidence of battery degradation in that time.
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Price is not the issue you seem to think it is. EVs (thanks to incentives) are surprisingly cheap now. I can get a $7500 federal incentive, a $5000 state incentive, a $4000 county air pollution reduction incentive, and a $4000 rebate from my local electric company. That is a total of $20,500 in incentives. I could drive off in a Tesla Model 3 for under $15,000 after incentives. Those incentives would make a Chevy Bolt EV/EUV under $5,000.
As for battery life? That is an antiquated trope. Modern batter
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If you have that many incentives, then for YOU the price issue is good. I, only have federal incentives, no state, county, electrical, etc. I can't even seem to find those in a google search, but I'm not saying you're making anything up, like you're acusing me of making up stuff. But I am curious, where do you live?
Battery life is an issue, again, not for YOU, which is fine (do you live in a warm climate?). When I'm asked to pay extra money for a vehicle, and lithium ION is known to degrade rather quickl
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It's funny you mention consumers learning from cellphone batteries and applying their lessons to EV batteries. I'd say that worrying about charging times and lines at EV chargers is analogous to worrying about charging times and lines and those little cellphone charging kiosks at an airport.
Yeah, it'd be annoying if your cellphone was running low and you had to wait to get it charged up, but is that a scenario common enough that it significantly factors into your smartphone purchasing decision? For most
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The problem is, there is another option for most consumers. With cellphones, what other option was there? No phone I guess, but if you wanted one, you had to pay the charging price.
Gas cars are cheaper, they don't require subsidies (which I prefer), and filling up is pretty fast. Consumers will always compare what they have against a new tech. EVs arent there yet, sadly. Hopefully if we ever get a solid state battery, i think the negatives will go away alot faster. TBH, I'd rather the government fund sol
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Gas cars are cheaper, they don't require subsidies (which I prefer), and filling up is pretty fast.
I challenge you on all three of those points.
Gas cars are generally cheaper than their EV equivalents to buy up front - I give you that. But the ongoing cost of maintenance and of fuel is much lower, especially if you aren't getting low American gas prices.
On subsidies, we aren't comparing apples to apples if we don't consider the externalized costs of driving an ICEV. Is it a "subsidy" that the price of a gallon of gas doesn't include the cost of extracting from the atmosphere all of the pollutants e
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Ongoing cost of maintenace of EVs are actually better since they have fewer moving mechanical parts, but...when an electrical system dies in a gas car, it's usually very hard to fix and costly (see Jaguar). So, mechanical costs are cheaper, electrical costs are the same or worse (consider if you have to replace your car battery in an EV vs
So... stations every 60 km for 3000 km... (Score:1)
Means 50 stations. I wonder how many charging stations each will provide at 150kW. Is that 5 chargers, or 10?
I see on a Tesla that 'level 3 direct current' charging is 480 volts at 300 amps (!!!) for 170 miles of range in 30 minutes, and that is 140 kW. So that would be one charger per location. For Tesla, 'level 2' chargers are 9 to 52 miles per hour of charging, at 3.7 to 17.2 kW.
It doesn't sound like nearly enough charging stations. You are also going to be spending a good bit of time at the charging
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I wonder how many charging stations each will provide at 150kW. Is that 5 chargers, or 10?
For parkings accessible to light-duty (I guess, cars): "each recharging pool offers a power output of at least 600 kW and includes at least two recharging points with an individual power output of at least 150 kW;"
For parkings accessible to heavy-duty (I guess, trucks): "each recharging pool offers a power output of at least 3 600 kW and includes at least two recharging points with an individual power output of at least 350 kW;"
The regulation: https://data.consilium.europa.... [europa.eu]
Re: So... stations every 60 km for 3000 km... (Score:1)
New Zealand had 11,000 km of state roads... ie built by and maintained by the govt... not locally councils... so if Europe only has 3000km, then it must be an awfully small place?
Charging time is still the bottleneck (Score:4, Insightful)
The (currently) inescapable problem is charging time. It's not range. 150kW to fill up 60kWh requires 24 minutes. Since arriving traffic at a particular station is bursty, that means the number of chargers needs to be provisioned to service more than the expected average. For certain busy routes, that overprovisioning needs to be more extreme. Overprovisioning means more chargers and more parking spots. As the percentage of vehicles that are electric approaches 100%, that means that parking lots for charging have to be huge. Think of the busiest highway truck stops that fill up cars with gas in 5 minutes, and then think how long those lines would be if filling up took 24 minutes.
More stations is nice but doesn't address the core problem. Current stations only seem to work because there are so few cars that need to be charged.
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This story is exactly about correcting the thing you are complaining about.
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This story is about building 50 new chargers....
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I don't understand what you are trying to say. You are saying the problem is there are not enough chargers, this story is about building thousands of more chargers.
This story is exactly about correcting the thing you are complaining about.
The problem is that overprovisioning is needed, and that need for overprovisioning will make the solution intractable when there are many cars. Consider a simple example of one road with 10 locations with charging stations. If each station has 10 chargers, they can handle a total of 100 cars charging at one time. If charging takes 15 minutes, then 400 cars can be charged in one hour. However, that assumes 100% utilization at all stations, which is very unlikely. More likely, some stations will be at lo
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I don't think the problem is as big as you make it sound.
The vast majority of trips are under 30 miles and thus won't require charging if people can do it at home/work:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/ve... [energy.gov]
Then, as you say, if refueling a gas car takes 5 minutes and an EV is 20, well, that's not a huge issue, is it. You can just have 4 times more charges. Since they don't involve putting toxic and exlplody fuel underground, they can be in more locations.
I don't think the analogy with expanding highways is right.
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People with ICEs just making short trips around their city don't fill up at truck stops on the highway either, yet I see a lot of busy truck stops on the highway. The point being, a lot of people have a need to travel away from home.
Maybe I wasn't very clear about the situation. People can't fill up their ICE car at home but the EV can be always full at the start of the day.
E.g. my car is now parked with like 20% tank, so if I want to drive to the nearby city, I'll have to stop on the way. If I had an EV, it would be full (or 80% or whatever) so I'd never have to stop. I'd only need to charge on the highway if the A->B distance was greater than the range, or there's no charger at the destination. Considering even something like the
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When they changed the interstate near my house from 3 lanes in each direction to 4, it truly helped. Sometimes, adding lanes to local roads invites more traffic, but it didn't, and wouldn't be expected to, for this tollway.
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Well, that logic applies to gas cars, too. Can you imagine how many gas stations we'd have to build to be able to deal with peak capacity?! AND you need to be making regular fuel deliveries to each location, every few days or weeks? Ludicrious!
Yet we somehow did it.
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To address your post more directly, more charging stations will only improve the crowding and overuse issue. That,
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No, not really. Points of interest rarely coincide with charging stations, at least in my experience in Spain. Fast chargers are usually in industrial districts and next to highways, not in city centres or natural parks. If you're lucky you will find one next to a restaurant and you can have coffee while your car charges. But if there's a restaurant it's possible that some other driver will be drinking coffee while his car stand there fully charged, blocking the charger and you don't know when he's going to
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The (currently) inescapable problem is charging time.
No it's not. You can charge an EV faster to 80% (which gets you waaaaay more than 2 hours worth of driving) than the recommended minimum break time of 15min (or mandated in case of many company business trips) required on a long haul trip.
If taking a 15 min break every 2 hours isn't sufficient for you then you are a dangerous idiot who shouldn't be driving on the road. Take a break and save someone else's life, even if you don't care about your own.
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https://supercharge.info/map [supercharge.info]
Sure, most of them are NACS chargers, but given the shift of North American auto makers to that plug type, it won't be long until all Canadians can drive completely across the country without worrying about 2 hour gaps.
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Very true. This is partially alleviated by people being able to charge at home, so other than long road trips there is never a reason to visit these roadway charging stations. Even apartment-dwellers can normally have level-2 chargers installed where they normally park overnight.
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As the percentage of vehicles that are electric approaches 100%, that means that parking lots for charging have to be huge.
You're missing the obvious: gas stations are needed for everyday travel, charging stations aren't. Most people with EVs could probably count on one hand how many times they need to visit a charging station in a year.
Only 0.8% of US road trips exceed 100 miles [evstatistics.com] (apologies for the lack of EU statistic) and most (though admittedly not all) people are capable of charging their EVs at home. If the world went 100% EV, it wouldn't result in the nightmare parking lots you're describing: it'd actually be removing fro
Big whoop (Score:1)
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So what?
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no trains? (Score:2)
That'll certainly keep the trains from being overcrowded.
One tiny wee little miniscule sore thumb seen (Score:2)
There is a pesky detail that should be addressed. Obviously they will need thousands upon thousands of new charging stations. Alas, they share a problem with California in this regard. Those charging stations need thousands upon thousands of megawatts of electricity that is nowhere in sight, especially for the poor sods stuck recharging at night.
Where is the power gonna come from?
{O.O}
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There's plenty of electricity at night, that's why it's cheaper.
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Including the UK there too by the way. I follow this quite closely. If 100% of all ICE cars spontaneously combusted today (higher likelihood than EVs, by the way), and then every single car was also replaced with an EV at the same instant, that this happened right now so judged against literally today's grid infrastructure, and then every single car owner decided to charge to 100% du
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I will laugh sooo hard when someone builds a charging station that is powered by an on-site fossil-fuel generator. Better idea: A horse mill!
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Already worked out. Please try to keep up.
The sooner the better (Score:2)
Charging a car should be as simple as parking a car in a bay, plugging it in, going up to a screen and tapping a credit card. No apps or membership cards, just tap and charge. And drivers should not be punished for charging via this payment method, i.e. there is no "preferential rate". And this includes Tesla superchargers & any make of vehicle - tap and charge. Charge networks should also be required to publish live information about charger status, charging rates so it can be accessed from a single pl