There are charging operators who build for their own requirements. And those who build for the needs of their customers. One of them will win.
🔌 From the operator side, there are countless categories. Highway Charging, Urban Charging, Depot Charging, Destination Charging, Home Charging. I touched on this in my podcast with Sebastian Henßler. But when you think from the customer’s perspective, there are only two.
🛣️ Journey Charging: I have to stop and charge because the battery forces me to. Without charging I won’t reach my actual destination. The only job to be done in that moment is Delivering Arrival. Every minute of active charging time is a minute I didn’t want to spend. Ultra fast charging is almost always the right tool here because faster equals better in this context. BYDs Flash charging shows what’s possible in 2026.
☕ Destination Charging: I want to stop, but for something else entirely. My battery level is not why I’m here. I’m here to shop, work, sleep or whatever i want to do. Charging happens alongside it in a completely passive manner without me noticing. The job is not Delivering Arrival, it’s Delivering Freedom. I have nothing to do with the charging. It just happens.
There’s also an in-between. The battery is running low but I can combine charging with a break, lunch, or something similar. At its core though, even that is Destination Charging wrapped in Journey logic.
↔️ One of the real strengths of the electric car, beyond Destination Charging, is bidirectional charging. And that needs Destination logic. Whoever charges in a planned and regular way can feed back in a planned and regular way.
Whoever stands at a fast charger for five minutes every few days cannot.
🚗 The same applies to Vehicle Pooling as an energy resource. If you want to bundle vehicles for BiDi and grid services needs predictable charging cycles. Knowing when which vehicle is where, for how long, and at what state of charge, allows intelligent control, prioritisation and feed-back. That only works when charging is integrated into everyday life. Not when it’s a deliberate detour.
🎯 Whoever charges at home doesn’t think about charging. Whoever charges on the road wants to arrive, not charge. Whoever charges at their destination ideally doesn’t notice it at all. Understand their situation and the context first. Then decide on the hardware. If you do it the other way round you don’t have a strategy as an operator. You just have a hope.
⚡ Stop building for charging power. Start building for powering life. ⚡
Who wins
