Unfortunately EV stations make a point to know their customer, extensively. Is it even possible to pay cash and not have your car identified by the charger in a significant number of stations?

> Is it even possible to pay cash and not have your car identified by the charger in a significant number of stations?

The majority of the charging you do will be at your home, where you already pay for electricity. Unlike gas stations, which you go to every few weeks, you'll "fill up" away from home only infrequently, only when traveling multiple hundreds of miles away.

When you are away from home, it's sometimes possible to charge anonymously like you describe. RV campgrounds/RV parking often has a dumb electric outlet (which you'll need an adapter for) that can charge you quicker than a regular household outlet. Any place that has regular electric outlets can "trickle charge" you.

That said, you're right that EV charging when you're on a trip is more tech heavy and less anonymous than filling up at a gas station.

If your threat model doesn't allow for certain private companies to know your rough whereabouts when you're on road trips, then yeah, don't get an EV, don't use credit cards, don't use a phone, etc etc. Most people's threat models are perfectly fine with this though.

> The majority of the charging you do will be at your home

I'm worried someone will stumble upon the 50 meters of charging cable I have to hang from the third floor, along the pedestrian way, towards the car - in case I'm lucky to get a parking space just in front of the condo.

Some of the chargers can be set so they will only charge your car (or other cars that you whitelist).

I don't think they meant stumble upon as in discover it for their own use. I read it more as physically tripping over the cable hanging from their 3rd story condo. A bit of a tounge-in-check story noting the diffculty of charging at home if you don't live in a single-family structure.

Ah, fair enough... I guess it's like a garden hose in that way -- a relatively easy problem to solve, but still a pain and maybe an eyesore.

Depending on your POV, the main "gas" station in your garage for an EV has either extensive knowledge of you, or ~zero knowledge of you. Outside gas stations are for use only for road trips.

Not that I know of but I don't see anything precluding it.

Like others have said, most of the "gas station" is at your residence and is probably via a dumb charger.

If you're traveling, a quick stop at an EV station is an hour long. It's not all pink skies.

I spent more time in 2021 waiting on gas pumping in my ICE than I did on my EV charging. Easily more than an hour of time going out of my way to go to fuel stations, potentially waiting for a pump, pumping gas, then getting back on my way versus 0 minutes on my EV just plugging in immediately when I pull into my garage.

I'm already at >30min on waiting for gas pumping on my ICE for 2022. I'm still at 0 minutes on my EV.

If I go on a road trip and spend an hour waiting to charge, I will still have spent less time waiting on refueling on my EV than my ICE.

Oh yea, its also almost 1/10th the energy cost driving the EV than the ICE.