In 1907, Canada's first gasoline service station was built. As depicted in the picture, it bore little resemblance to today's service stations.
It wasn’t long before gasoline retailers realized they were missing opportunities in terms of selling more gasoline as well as selling other products that drivers could pick up alongside their fuel.
Over the next hundred years, the design would evolve immensely, making “filling up” as convenient an experience as possible. Tanks moved underground. Supporting infrastructure like trash bins and windshield washing stations popped up. Retail was added and eventually fast food and other food services.
We’ve all come to rely on the gas station as a place that’s open long hours where we can easily grab our gas along with a handful of other goods, sold at a premium in exchange for their convenient location.
And then there’s the Electric Vehicle …
For a career product and solution designer, it can be puzzling to interact with some of the EV Charging stations out there. There are a handful of well designed experiences in place. (Shout out @Parkland On The Run who seem committed to providing a real service to customers.)
On the flip side, a significant number of installed chargers appear to be placed there merely to give the impression of being "green" or "forward-thinking," without a genuine intention to attract EV drivers or effectively charge cars. Were these solutions conceived by individuals who have never experienced driving an EV? It's like creating a game without ever attempting to play it.
Users need reliability, predictability, security and many other things in order to opt into any experience. There are some simple strategies early sight designers can deploy to help drivers gain the comfort they need to start driving electric. Here are 5 essential elements to consider for bare minimum EV charging locations:
Charging cables need to be manageable. In order for EVs to be broadly adopted, humans need ways to plug them in and unplug them. This seems simple, but there are cables out there that simply cannot be managed by persons without a lot of strength. And I mean A LOT of strength. This is preventable with good design, hardware selection and cable management.
Proper signage and layout. Drivers must understand where to find the EV Charging on a site. I cannot tell you the number of times that I’ve known there was EV Charging at a site because of word or mouth or an app or Google Maps, but I still circled a parking lot many times trying to locate the stations.
Tap to pay. One of the most annoying things about the industry is the dozens of apps that one must download to charge a non-Tesla here in Canada. Allowing tap to pay is game changing and, in my opinion, should be standard. Many of the apps don’t even support third party payment and therefore require drivers to enter their credit card information directly into the app.
Basic amenities. It always surprises me how often EV Charging stations are missing some of the basic things I need when I pull off the highway to fill up after a long drive. Trash bins, windshield washing, coffee, bathrooms, snacks and even a patch of grass for my dogs are all things that would make my life so much easier. When I have a choice, I will choose stations with these amenities.
Educated support team. We had an issue with a charger this week whereby we couldn’t unplug from a station. It turned out that it was a simple feature of the car that we didn’t understand. The charger support person, however, was not aware of that and told us he would send a technician but “not to wait around as it could be days”. We were at that time tethered to the charger thousands of miles from home, so I’m not sure where he thought we might go? This person was clearly just trained to restart the stations and wish us on our way. If he had assured us that it was likely a car feature, we would have had an entirely different experience and considered the network provider helpful.
Like the initial gas stations, we’re just getting started and there’s much to learn as EV adoption grows and driver needs evolve. I hope these simple considerations will help us create meaningful experiences for drivers that help businesses thrive while boosting the industry at large.
Image: First Gasoline Station in Canada 1907 (Courtesy of Imperial Oil Ltd)
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