Matthias SpeicherIn short
The charging industry didn’t invent charging, it electrified refuelling. In 2016 that was right, because it translated something new into something familiar. Today it becomes a mistake, because most charging sessions are moving to where life already is, home, work, the supermarket. And there the petrol station logic breaks down, because the driver isn’t there to charge. Charging should follow parking, not refuelling.
I hear and read it all the time. Charging should be like refuelling. And I say: no, it shouldn’t. The obvious question then is: what should it be instead? That’s what this is about.
Why we rebuilt the petrol station
When the first fast chargers appeared at convenient locations, there was no blueprint for what charging could be. Most people knew electricity from the socket at home, but never for mobility. And the mobility that was already electric, trams and trains, always had its power through a cable and never had to store it.
What everyone knew was refuelling. So the industry built what it had known for decades. A central location with several connectors, the plug even designed in the spirit of a fuel nozzle, wait until done, drive on. Just with electricity instead of petrol. That wasn’t stupid, it was pragmatic. And for that moment, right.
It helped psychologically too. The EV was already a big step for most people. A new vehicle, new technology, often a leap in driver assistance systems, and in the early days real compromises. Had charging also worked completely differently from anything familiar, that would have been cognitive overload. The petrol station logic translated something new into something known.
Why the logic breaks down today
But understandable doesn’t mean future-proof. Just as EVs no longer demand compromises for most drivers today, most private charging sessions will soon no longer happen at the motorway stop or the dedicated hub. They shift to where life already is. Home, work, the supermarket, the gym.
And there the petrol station logic breaks, because the driver isn’t there to charge. They’re there to shop, to work, to sleep. Refuelling works the way it does because petrol only exists at the petrol station. You have to drive there, it’s a deliberate act. What feels normal is in truth a limitation.
Charging doesn’t have that limitation. Charging can happen wherever and whenever you park. And let’s be honest, we use our cars for parking far more than for driving. That’s not a drawback, it’s the lever. It isn’t only about where you can charge. It’s about making charging something you no longer notice at all.
Who brings people to the place
The difference comes down to a simple picture. At the petrol station, fuel brings people in, because it only exists there. The coffee is secondary. You stop to fuel and maybe grab a coffee. The stop carries the business, because the fuel forces the stop. If you don’t need fuel, you get your better coffee elsewhere.
With electricity, that logic reverses. People come to shop, to work, to eat. The car charges while they do what they came for. The business brings people in, the charging happens alongside. Charging is no longer a service you seek out a place for. It’s an amenity at a place you chose for entirely different reasons.
That’s the core. Charging is itself the amenity. It doesn’t need amenities around it, no lounge, no big screens, no loyalty scheme. It should be invisible, passive, part of the place.
The exception stays, but it stays the exception
So there’s no misunderstanding. Fast-charging hubs on the motorway are necessary and stay so. For the long trip, for commercial transport, for the case where you really do have to stop just to charge. In those situations, good coffee, clean facilities and a strong brand absolutely matter. That’s the exception where petrol station logic still holds, and there it’s allowed to be good.
The latest charging technology demonstrates exactly this confusion. When a manufacturer charges a car to 97 percent in under ten minutes, at 1500 kW, the reaction almost everywhere is excitement. Mine is mixed, because we’re solving the wrong problem, just faster. There are situations where 1500 kW is exactly right. No depot, no wallbox, no alternative, long journey, no break needed. For that driver, minimal charging time is a real win, and the technology is impressive. But it isn’t the universal answer the headlines make it out to be. Someone with a wallbox at home, maybe solar on the roof, isn’t giving that up to stand at an ultra-fast charger, not even for five minutes. Their car charges alongside life, and they don’t notice it.
The problem isn’t the technology, it’s the story around it. What happens if flash charging becomes the standard? Charging turns back into an active task. The detour comes back into everyday life. You drive specifically to such a station, plug in, wait, drive on. It stays petrol station logic with electricity. And at a typical motorway stop, nine minutes to 97 percent is barely enough for the toilet, let alone to eat. So you charge first, move the car, then take the break, just like refuelling. Or you block the expensive spot that depends on throughput. There’s barely any headroom left, because you’re already at 97 instead of the usual 80 percent. And today only certain vehicles can even use it. The majority charge under 100 kW on average from 10 to 80 percent, with peaks often below 200, 800-volt systems aside. Just as ever larger batteries alone don’t solve range anxiety, 1500 kW charging alone doesn’t solve charge anxiety.
What this means for operators
Anyone thinking exclusively in petrol station logic today is building for a minority of future charging sessions. That part of the market will remain, but the fight for it will be hard, brutal, and will lead to heavy consolidation. Either you have a strategy to win it, or you have the wrong market.
So the real question isn’t which charger do I build where. It’s why does my customer come here at all. Understand their situation first and derive the technology from it, and you have a strategy. Do it the other way round and you have no strategy as an operator, you have a hope.
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 the situation first, then decide the hardware.
Stop building for charging power. Start building for the life behind it.