BACK GROUND << make sure I had enough charge for my next leg of the trip the next day so I used a few apps: • miio: A Portuguese EMSP app that the rental car agency helpfully advised me to download. The app showed me that the nearest charger was a few minutes away, though I couldn't pay for this via the app. • PlugShare: This app showed me the same nearby charger. • Parkopedia: This location did not feature on the app. Phantom Chargers – locating public chargers remains a significant prob- lem I drove to the location in ‘Figueira da Foz’ and found out that it was in fact a hotel. I checked with reception but was told that they actually have no EV charger at this lo- cation. I reported this issue to PlugShare and then abandoned the idea of charging for the night, though, on the positive side, Plug- Share did remove that location in the fol- lowing days. The next day, I decided to head to a charger that was further away and drove to the local BP station where I could activate the charger through the miio app. Thank- fully, the charger was actually there. How- ever, there was another electric car noncha- lantly parked, which was not charging but prevented me from plugging in successfully, as the cable was too short to reach my car. This meant that I had to park across multi- ple parking spaces to work around this. Once I addressed the cable issue, I success- fully activated the charger through the miio app and sat down to do some work in a local restaurant. Puzzlingly, I was only getting 11 kW from the Type 2 43 kW charger, so after two hours of charging, I only gained 20 per cent of additional range. In addition, at that stage, I received a notification saying that my 20 euro preloaded credit had now run out – even though the app was still showing only the 1.53 euro charge. Broken chargers continue to cause charging issues In the same evening, I drove to a nearby town 60 km away and, as I had a long drive the next day, I decided to attempt a top-up charge again. So, I picked another fast charger on the miio app, which was at a fuel station. The charger was shown as being available, however, when I arrived there I found that the Type 2 plug that I needed was actually broken, though both miio and PlugShare showed it as available. I reported the issue on the PlugShare app but I can see that it’s now showing CHAdeMO as being out of order instead of Type 2, so perhaps I picked the wrong plug when reporting the issue but it is more likely a system issue, highlighting a potential lack of verification. So, I found another charger at another fuel station on the other side of the river, proceeded to drive over and upon arrival found a Nissan Leaf charging there. The driver informed me that we couldn’t simul- taneously charge at the stated 50 kW, which turned out to be incorrect, as I was able to charge the Ford with the Type 2 plug simul- taneously without any issues, but showed even existing EV drivers are quick to believe what they read or have heard without verify- ing themselves. This time I charged for three hours and added only around 30% to the battery, so after 120 km of driving I ended the day close to where I started, with the same 50 per cent charge. Extended charging sessions often needed – even with ‘fast’ chargers The next day, I had 150 km of driving to complete, and barely enough charge for this (certainly not enough with the essential air- conditioning on during the current heat- wave in Portugal), so I charged halfway through my trip for two hours at a fast food restaurant car park which had a fast charger. Finally, having arrived at my end desti- nation Porto, I parked in a local Saba car park that had a standard charger, which I was able to activate through miio and get the car to 100 per cent after eight hours of charging. Today’s EV reality So, my takeaways after driving 1,000 km in an EV in Portugal are that there are still many challenges when it comes to covering long distances via electric power only: 1. Charging Discrepancies: The majority of stories and media reports that we read about EV infrastructure and range/charg- ing anxiety etc. are true. In the first 48 hours of my driving, I experienced the following: i. Non-existent chargers being displayed in apps ii. Broken plugs/chargers iii. Being prevented from charging as in- tended with short cables and blocked bays 2. Time vs Distance: I spent more time charging than actually driving and the miio app was in my top five used apps last week with a staggering 90 minutes of us- age 3. Unclear Costs: As an EV driver, I had no visibility into EV pricing. For example, my Porto charging session cost over 46 euros and breaks down as 21.84 euros miio energy, 16.04 euros for charging point activation and 8.80 euro in fees (ap- proximately 20% of the total) 4. Seeking Seamless: The entire process of finding and paying for parking and charg- ing is massively disjointed. I was not able to use Ford’s in-car find charger function- ality, as it wasn’t enabled through Ford Pass, which is a significant limitation for those borrowing or renting a vehicle who do not personally own it Final Thoughts While my recent experience highlights that public charging can be a stressful experience for drivers, I know that many companies – including Parkopedia – are working hard to change this. We have a huge opportunity to address the very real issues facing EV driv- ers all over the world in realising our ambi- tion to become the leading neutral aggrega- tor of parking, charging and seamless pay- ments globally. On a personal note, I was very pleased to see that all of the chargers that I ended up using, were all listed correctly in the Parko- pedia app, so that gives me great confidence that we’re very much on the right track to deliver the charging experience desired by drivers. As the world pivots towards a greener future with EVs, addressing these teething issues is essential. My 1000 km journey was an eye-opener, reinforcing the need for a seamless, integrated, and user- friendly EV infrastructure. Here’s hoping for smoother roads (and charging experiences) n ahead! Parking trend international no. 4-2023 33 33