Part 12 in Peter Aubourg’s column, Diary of an EV Driver

It turns out that it is quite a social affair at the charging stations, with people sharing their experiences, and generally helping each other.    On the subject of planning the trip, another app was recommended; ABRP (A Better Route Planner). 

I downloaded the free app to find it was very good. You tell the app what car you are driving and the state of charge when you depart, then where you want to go.  You also say how often you want to stop (on a sliding scale) and what percentage of charge you are willing to go down to.  The app then plans the route in the same way as Google maps, except that it shows where the charging stations are that you should use. It also shows how many charge points the charging stations have, and how many are available.

At one point I saw a fellow EV owner plug in his car, and without using his phone, made the charger start. 'How did you do that?'

'Magic,' he smirked. 

Turns out you can get a plastic card from the charging company to make things easier. This card is an RFID card (Radio Frequency Identification card) similar to the Opal card. I wanted this magic!

I started by ordering a card from my Evie app. When it arrived in the mail, I linked it to my account using the same Evie app. Then I went off to the Evie charging station in Wollongong Central. I parked the car next to the charger, plugged in the car and then tapped the card on the charger and voila, the charger started. SO much easier than messing about with the phone app. 

Turns out there are seven companies that let you use RFID cards and they will be enough for most of your charging. They are: BP Pulse, Chargefox (NRMA), Evie, EVX, Exploren, Everty and Wevolt. 

The card for the Evie charger is in fact a general purpose card, and you can link it to the other charging apps you have on your phone (if they are one of the seven). I now have all my RFID compatible accounts on the Evie card.  

So now when I am charging away from home it is almost always just tap-and-go, just like the Opal card!