Since we were founded, ChargePoint has stayed focussed on a few core principles: a great charging experience, seamless scaling, unparalleled quality and responsive service. These elements are in our DNA, in our solutions and in the mind of every ChargePointer. In this blog series, we explain why these principles are so important to us and how we bring them out into the world through our work.
As someone who’s spent my career in marketing, I enjoy studying consumer behaviour. I know from experience that people resist change, so getting them to commit to something new requires the new thing to be noticeably better than what came before. That’s why ChargePoint has spent more than a decade understanding the details of how people charge so we can keep making the experience of charging an EV even better, for everyone from new EV drivers to savvy fleet managers.
Meet people where they are
At ChargePoint, we envision a world where there's EV charging in every parking lot. Anytime I’m parked, whether I’m finishing up a call or waiting for a friend, I see fellow drivers, parked up, who have a lot going on. They might be texting a friend, lugging some groceries, digging through a laptop bag, wrangling their kids or getting the dog out of the car for a walk. Yet almost every single person has the same thing in their hands: their phone.
That's why ChargePoint came up with tap to charge, which lets EV drivers simply tap their phone on a station to start a charge. It's remarkably convenient—not to mention noticeably better than fuelling a petrol car. There’s no separate trip to fuel up and no extra card to dig out of your wallet. It takes just a few seconds to tap, plug in and go about your day. Tap to charge is my favourite example of how we paid attention to the details and made EV charging fit into your life, not the other way around.
Go beyond the charging station
Tap to charge is one of my personal favourites, but it’s not the only way we’ve worked to deliver a superior charging experience. Whether designing Waitlist to let more people charge at busy locations or configuring Power Management to support charging more vehicles, ChargePoint is always paying attention to the details to find ways to make the charging experience better for drivers and businesses alike.
We give all of our customers the flexibility to make EV charging work for their business with a convenient online dashboard that shows charging activity, energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions avoided and other important info, all at a glance. Plus, the dashboard includes an easy way to read and respond to driver tips so businesses can stay connected with their customers. It all adds up to a convenient, rewarding experience managing EV charging.
Lead the way
In addition to making charging easy with our solutions, we lay the groundwork for a better charging experience through our tireless industry and policy efforts. To provide just one example, we worked with the EPA to develop standards for ENERGY STAR efficiency certification and were the first company to have our solutions certified. This is a big deal because most charging happens at home, so using an ENERGY STAR recognised charger saves you energy and money. We've also achieved global certifications for safety, like UL and CE, because we want everyone to feel confident using our solutions.
Because we know that people around the world live in different types of housing and businesses have different needs, we’re the only company to provide EV charging solutions everywhere they’re needed, from single-family homes and apartments, to fast charging on motorways to major transit and delivery fleets. We do whatever it takes to make charging so easy you don’t have to think about it.
For many people, the environmental impact of driving electric is what matters most. Choosing electric allows them to align how they get around every day with their personal values. As we’ve seen emissions plummet during lockdown, it’s a reminder that there is a better way, and it’s actually easier and more enjoyable too. Our policy team is always busy promoting EV adoption in order to help clear the air, save money and improve efficiency.
Start with people
How do we know what makes an enjoyable charging experience? We start with the people who’ll have it: EV drivers, businesses and fleet managers. I appreciate how ChargePoint applies the concept of human-centred design in our business. We start with what matters most: people. We take a close look at what people need, design our solutions to match, then test to make sure our way is really better. Tap to charge is a good example of this. We could have said it was good enough to just support RFID cards. But we wanted to make things even easier. So we did.
A convenient charging experience is the foundation of all we do, and it's also important to growth. We can’t make EVs a global reality without making it easy for everyone to get a charge. Next up, we’ll talk about how we simplify scaling with networked charging.
