Elon Musk understood that electric cars don’t work unless there is a convenient way to charge them, particularly on longer trips. Therefore, in tandem with selling Teslas, he created a charging network. He made the network convenient, fast, and workable, in other words, Human Centric. Astrid has a plethora of stories about EV charging over on Parknews.biz. Check them out.
Other car companies have begun to understand that charging networks are not just important, but are essential to the popularity of EVs. Volkswagen has announced a “Human Centric” network that has charging stations that are fast, under canopies, easy to use, and even have waiting areas for drivers. You know, sort of like gasoline stations.
I’m not surprised that someone in a boardroom somewhere had to come up with the “Human Centric” idea. See, where then is no profit or competition in the mix, there is no reason to actually spend big bucks to attract customers.
Oil Companies understand that to compete with commodities, you have to offer something else. Costco is rebuilding its fueling stations to make it easier and quicker for drivers to get in and out. Most other stations offer all sorts of amenities like 7-11 type stores, coffee, car washes, TV screens on the pumps so you can watch the news while you fill up, and the like. They don’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it because they are greedy capitalists and want customers.
When the goal of the EV charging station is to be a loss leader for the auto companies to attract customers to EVs and it is being funded by the government, where is the incentive to make the station “human centric.” And when they do, will VW, like Tesla, make its stations compatible with the EVs it manufacturers?
We are seeing story after story now about charging stations that are broken, difficult to fix, short on spare parts, and few actual repair facilities. Can you remember the last time you saw a pump at a gas station out of order for more than a day, at most? When the pumps are down, its costs money.
As soon as the true cost of the electrons flowing into an EV is charged to the EV owner, and good old capitalist competition kicks in and fixes the charger supply chain, “Human Centric” will be a dream that we will only see in Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Manhattan, and Brooklyn (the cities slated for EV stations by Volkswagen.)
“Human Centric” is just another phrase meaning putting your customer first. And in our capitalist system, we do that to attract them, to make them happy, to entice them to buy our stuff, and through all that to make profit. Therefore, shouldn’t everything we do be “Human Centric.” It will make our customers happy, and our investors, too.
JVH
