Required Apps & Financial Gatekeeping Are Slowing EV Adoption - CleanTechnica

The article from CleanTechnica highlights how financial gatekeeping and the requirement of smartphone apps are significant barriers slowing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), especially among lower-income and underbanked populations. Financial gatekeeping refers to the various ways access to financial services is controlled or limited, such as needing a credit card or bank account to use EV charging networks. In the U.S., nearly 25 million households are underbanked or lack mainstream financial services, making it difficult for these individuals to use public EV chargers that typically require app-based payment methods linked to credit cards. This reliance on digital financial transactions excludes those who rely on cash or have limited smartphone access, such as people with no data plans, dead phones, or limited tech literacy. The article further explains that while home charging is a major advantage of EV ownership, many lower-income drivers will depend on public chargers, which are often unattended and require smartphone apps or RFID cards to operate. This system assumes users have both smartphone and credit card access