Electric cars: they can only be charged through an ATM!

As you have noticed, Portugal is a very interesting country in many areas, especially in our ability to complicate things that we do well in a very simple way.

For example, the same country that developed and implemented the network ATMSo good that it is replicated abroad, the same one who implemented an incredibly complex and tedious system. electric car charging managed by a single entity, and furnishingwhich is responsible for managing information between the various actors in the network.

That is, even though everything is run by a central character (mobi.e)In Portugal, we have several other entities in the world of electric vehicle charging. Like the CEME (Energy Traders for Electric Mobility), OPC (freight station operators) as well UVE (electric vehicle users)

In short, this leads to a ‘party’ system, where users have to carry dozens of cards behind them, in order to get the best possible price at a given station.

Unfortunately, it also results in equal shares, with the same energy, but vastly different prices. But the worst is the difficulty of accessing the information! how much will you pay? It’s hard to know! The vast majority of drivers will only know how much they have paid when they receive the bill at home at the end of the month.

Well, abroad shipments are already paid for using an ATM, and it seems that this will also happen in Portugal. Some stations are even prepared for this!

Electric cars: it will (finally) be possible to charge only with Multibanco!

I’m pretty honest, if there’s one thing that bothers me, it’s having to run price simulations at any electric charging station through apps like MIIO, to figure out which card I should eventually use for Plug-In or Electric charging. Yes, simulation, the final price may not be! I won’t know until the end of the month.

It is also strange that drivers are required to contract with one or more parties, just to be able to charge their cars at public charging stations.

After all, in the world of ICE (combustion vehicles), you just go to the gas station, put in petrol, diesel or something else, and pay at the end. Even if you have loyalty cards like Repsol, BP, etc… For a more attractive price, the fact is that the price is upfront, and you pay at the moment. You don’t have to wait a month to get the bill.

Well, new European standards are on their way to put an end to complexity!

That is, from 2024, due to the entry into force of the AFIR regulations, it will be mandatory to offer the contactless or card payment alternative in all new stations of 50 kW or more of energy.

Some recent publications in Portugal already have a contactless payment terminal for exactly this reason.

In short, this will not eliminate all the complexities that we can find in the Portuguese system. By the way, I think there will still be room to use MIIO, Evio, EDP, Galp cards, etc… but it will surely bring some necessary changes to the system. In the meantime, share your thoughts on all of this in the comments box below.