I hear and read it all the time: charging should be like refueling. But I say: no, it shouldn’t be. You might ask now: But what should it be instead?


⛽ We all know the routine, we’ve been doing it for decades: spot the price sign, pull over, stick the nozzle in, pay, drive off. Copying the petrol station experience into the electric world was easy, and that’s exactly why we did it. It’s familiar. But familiar isn’t better. It’s just familiar.

Refuelling works the way it does because fuel only exists at petrol stations. You have to drive there, it’s a deliberate activity. What feels normal is actually quite a limitation.

🔌 Charging doesn’t have that limitation. Charging can happen wherever and whenever you park. At home, at work, while shopping, at the hotel, you name it or better, your life tells you. It integrates into what you’re already doing instead of interrupting it. And let’s be honest with ourselves, we use our cars for parking far more often than for driving.

But that’s an advantage we can build on. It’s not just about where you can charge. It’s about making charging something you don’t even notice. You work, you shop, you sleep, you just enjoy your life. The car charges in the background. You don’t even think about it. And the best part? It’s always charged.

🔋 Don’t get me wrong. Fast charging at charging hubs plays an important role, especially for long-distance trips and nowadays still for those not able to charge at home. But most people rarely drive long distances in their daily lives and home charging will become more and more available. But if we design the entire system around that exception, we miss the actual use case: everyday life.

Charging should ask nothing of you. It should just happen. Anything that demands attention is already too much. Ubiquity beats speed. Integration beats interruption.