Where Public Charging Falls Short: An EV Driver’s Perspective

Peter Rigby is the co-founder of Polares, a software company that helps finance teams get clear answers from their accounting data without exports, spreadsheets, or waiting on analysts.

Like many professionals balancing a busy work life with family responsibilities, Peter made the switch to an EV three years ago. The decision was deliberate: he has three kids, cares about the environment, and wanted to show them that a cleaner option is available and practical.

The car has delivered on that. Public charging, for a long time, did not.

When Public Charging Fails at the Worst Moment

Peter charges at home most of the time, but after two weeks traveling for work, he returned to the airport to find his battery too low to make it home. It was midnight, he was tired, and all he needed to do was charge and leave. So, Peter stopped at the nearest public charger.

What happened next is a story many EV drivers know well.

Before Peter could start charging, the charger asked him to create an account, but after completing the entire registration process, the charging session refused to start. Peter was left with no choice but to drive to a second location.

The second charger worked, but it tested his patience just as much. The payment process was poorly designed and required him to dig through his wallet for a physical card he rarely uses.

"When you drive a car, you do not always stick to the same routes or the same destinations,” says Peter. “At some point, you will end up at a charger you have never used before, and you should not have to go through a registration process just to charge."

The experience Peter describes is common. Many public chargers are built around subscription models that work well for regular users but create friction for anyone arriving at an unfamiliar charger without an account.

"When you drive a car, you do not always stick to the same routes or the same destinations. At some point, you will end up at a charger you have never used before, and you should not have to go through a registration process just to charge." - Peter Rigby, Co-founder at Polares

As an EV driver, Peter had come to expect this. Public charging, in his experience, was something you endured rather than relied on.

That changed the day he pulled up to the charger at his office.

A QR Code, a Quick Scan, and Charging That Just Works

The chargers in the office parking lot where Peter works run on eMabler.

The first time he pulled up to charge there, he was not expecting much. After all, Peter had been through the drill before: find the right app or create an account from scratch, navigate the payment process, and hope it would work. But this time, he spotted a QR code on the charger, scanned it with his phone, and his session started immediately, with no account, no app, and no card required.

"When I came to the charger at my office, all I needed to do was scan a QR code. My session started instantly, everything worked perfectly, and I thought: this is how it should always be," Peter says.

The reason the charging session worked that way comes down to eMabler's Ad Hoc Payment feature, which lets drivers pay and start a session directly from the charger, without any prior account or setup. Drivers scan a QR code on the charger, pay through their phone using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a card, and start the session instantly. No app to download beforehand, no account to create, no RFID card to carry. The feature is designed specifically for situations like Peter's: someone who pulls up to an unfamiliar charger and simply needs it to work.

The effect of a single feature on the driver is easy to overlook from the operator side, but it is just as significant. That experience gave Peter, the end user, something new: confidence that a public charger would work smoothly. So much so that he now charges his car at the office two or three times a week.

"The charger at the office is one of the few places where I now charge publicly, because I no longer have the fear that I am going to get there and waste my time."

"My session started instantly, everything worked perfectly, and I thought: this is how it should always be." - Peter Rigby, Co-founder at Polares

Why EV Drivers Need More Than a Subscription Model

Ask most EV drivers what they want from a public charger, and the answer is usually the same: they want it to work, and they want it to work quickly.

In Peter’s words: “All I want is to pull up to a charger and charge my car. Nothing more.”

That being said, Peter is not against subscription models. He gets it: some drivers want an app, want to track every session, want loyalty points and special offers, and that is a perfectly valid way to charge. But it should be one of two options, not the only way in.

“Every charging station should offer both options. Think of it like a supermarket: do you want to use your loyalty card or not? If not, that is fine too.”

"Think of it like a supermarket: do you want to use your loyalty card or not? If not, that is fine too." - Peter Rigby, Co-founder at Polares

To understand why that second option matters so much, think about the two kinds of drivers who need it most. The first driver is running low on kilometers: standing at a charger filling in a registration form is the last thing they should have to deal with in that moment. The second is a busy professional with no interest in downloading an app, joining a loyalty program, or managing another account just to charge. Both drivers have one thing in common: if a charger puts a registration form between them and a functioning charging session, the experience fails them.

"When you pull up to charge, it is usually because you are running low and you need to make it to your destination. So, it is critical that you feel confident the charger is going to work,” says Peter. “Knowing that there is no login required and no account to create, that is what gives you confidence, and eMabler delivers exactly that type of charging experience."

"Knowing that there is no login required and no account to create, that is what gives you confidence, and eMabler delivers exactly that type of charging experience." - Peter Rigby, Co-founder at Polares

All in all, Peter's point is simple. For a significant portion of EV drivers, the decision to return to a charger has little to do with loyalty programs or branded apps but comes down to one simple thing: whether they can charge their car quickly and without friction.

That kind of reliability is what turns a one-time stop into a habit, and for operators, it is the difference between a charger that sits underused and one that drivers actively seek out.