RFID cards, why do they exist? (and how many do I need)

[Moroboshi]

I've been an on and off user of EVs for several years (my wife is onto her second one), but we've tried to avoid going long distances in one for a bunch of reasons (her two cars - Renault Zoe and now a Fiat 500e have tiny ranges, they charge very slowly, and our experience with motorway charging (Gridserve) has been about as much fun as a root canal). So we've never needed any RFID cards, and honestly, I always assumed they were a transitionary thing which wouldn't last long.

Well they're still here and as I'm planning to get a Cyberster within a couple of months or so and take it on a big French road trip I thought I had better look into these damn things.

From what I've been able to gather so far, for the UK an Electroverse card looks to cover everything. No other card needed?

For France, Electroverse looks pretty good too, but I get the sense that ChargeMap have slightly better coverage.

What about PlugSurfing?

How about Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Austria etc? Would I need any more of these silly little cards?

And I still don't understand why they exist, other than I assume some sort of data collection scam. The idea of needing some special sort of card to buy petrol (or anything else) is completely ridiculous, so why these EV cards exist is one of life's great mysteries.

 

[JohnV6]

i use an electroverse card & it makes life simple plus you get discounts at some charge points & the bill gets combined on my household utility bill.
No idea about the other cards. You can check on the electroverse app where charging stations are across europe. I just checked Bad Tolz in Bavaria & that has a 300kw charge station with 6 chargers. I would say electroverse has enough for you.

 

[leomindel]

I also mainly use the Electroverse card however I also have the charge map RFID card a Tesla account and signed up for a few apps in France and Italy. Electroverse turned out cheaper than the Italian ones.

On road trips best to have multiple options even if you only end up using the Electroverse.

One other thing to get is a bip & go for the tolls.

 

[Chongma]

This may be useful:

• Octopus Go customers receive a 5% discount off all public charging through Electroverse
• Intelligent Octopus Go customers receive an 8% discount off all public charging through Electroverse

From:

Octopus Electroverse

One-tap access to 921,551 EV chargers across the UK & Europe

electroverse.com

(No affiliation to Octopus, nor do I have one of these cards as I'm not planning to drive that far!)