- Electrify America is changing the way customers pay for EV charging.
- The American company is removing account balances in favor of simpler direct billing.
- For occasional EA users, the change should make life easier on the road.
Electrify America, one of the largest EV charging networks in the United States, is changing the way customers pay for their electric vehicle charging sessions. In the next weeks, the operator will phase out the app-based account balances and auto-reload features in favor of direct billing for each session.
The change removes one extra step from the EV charging experience, which is always welcome, especially for customers who rarely stop by EA stations. Until now, Electrify America customers had to preload funds into an account, and the smartphone app would then automatically refill the account with a preset amount of money when the balance ran low.
An Electrify America station with CCS1 and NACS connectors.
Photo by: RivianTrackr
The problem with this approach is that occasional users have to go through the trouble of requesting manual refunds for the remaining balance on their accounts. It’s not hard, but it’s just an extra step to go through.
Moving forward, the company will place an automatic but temporary authorization hold on the customer’s payment card in $20 increments at the start of each session. At the end of the session, the money that has not been used will be returned to the payment card. For instance, if a session costs $17, the remaining $3 will be returned automatically.
The company says that EV owners who still have funds in their app accounts will see that money go to the next charging session, with any remaining amount billed to the registered card.
It’s a good change, and it makes EA’s charging experience more similar to that of Tesla’s Supercharger, which needs a smartphone app, but bills charging directly to a credit or debit card.
Electrify America operates over 1,100 EV charging stations in the United States, with a combined 5,800 charging ports, according to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. The vast majority of locations offer DC fast chargers capable of delivering 350 kilowatts, while 140 stations scattered throughout the country feature a total of 170 Level 2 charging ports.
By comparison, the Tesla Supercharger network, the largest in the country, offers nearly 38,000 fast-charging ports at 3,100 stations in the U.S.