Used multiple RFID cards for fast charging: Which one I think is best

In summary, although RFID cards for DC fast charging is a great option, there are few instances where their benefit has only been ostensible.

BHPian mathewanil recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

After seeing Team-BHP electric car owners' reviews & experiences with EV charging stations across India, I would like to know what their experience has been using the Radio Frequency cards (RFID) provided by companies that offer DC fast charging (DCFC) for EV vehicles?

I own a Citroen EC3 and have clocked about 6000 km on the Odo and have used DC fast charging nearly 35 times. Although I have used the apps offered by various companies to initiate DC fast-charging initially, of late, I’ve procured various RFIDs from these companies and have used them for charging my car. Given below is my experience of acquiring and using these various RFIDs:

My first RFID that I got was from ZEON. It’s small, the size of a keychain and comes with a small tag. Like most companies, Zeon offers the tag through its app. It costs 330₹ and the app allows payment for the same using regular upi, cards and net banking. The card is couriered to your address within a week. Once received the card has to be registered through the app and then it’s ready for use. I’ve used the card more than 7 times, and it has never failed. You can just plug in the CCS2 connector to the car, choose RFID option on the screen and start charging by tapping the card on the RFID sensor on the machine. To stop, choose “stop charging” on the screen and tap the RFID card once more and the charger will stop charging the vehicle. This RFID has been my most consistent one and has never failed me.

The TATA Power EZ app was the next one I got. While applying for the RFID, the app opens a website which requires a re-login to purchase the card. The same was sent by courier and reached within a week. The card was already registered with my wallet by the time I received it. I had used a TATA DCFC once before I received the RFID, using the mobile app. This was on the old Madras Road from Bengaluru to Arcot and the mobile application worked just fine. I then had to use the RFID once on NH 544, at a “Café coffee day” premises at Kangayaplayam. The charger looked like a TATA Fast charger, but it was not listed or did not show up on the TATA Power EZ App. The screen on the charger also did not show an RFID option. However, after plugging in the connector and tapping the RFID, the charging was initiated without any problems. The app did not show the amount of money deducted from the wallet and the units consumed for charging till about 2 days after.

GOEC is one of the best companies offering DCFC in Kerala. The GOEC app has a similar interface like that of ZEON and we can order an RFID by clicking on the RFID option and filling a form within the app. The RFID costs 370₹. It comes preregistered before dispatch and no other action is needed from the user end. I had an opportunity to try it at one of the DC Fast chargers at Lulu Mall Kochi. Unfortunately, the RFID did not initiate charging and I had to use the app to restart the process. The second time was at Hotel Evergreen international at Pathanamthitta. There it seemed to work without any problems.

STATIQ sent me an RFID card after nearly 8 weeks of booking the card. The customer-care center kept saying “it’ll be on its way soon”, but I received the card after considerable delay. The only time I used it was at “Café Udupi Ruchi” on the Krishnagiri Chennai highway beyond Arcot and somehow it did not work. There was an issue with the charger too and I had to use my App to initiate the charging cycle. Only a top up of the Wallet in the app was required to buy the card. In other words, it is free. STATIQ also gives a free 100₹ top up of your account after your first use of the app and more recently a 1200₹ worth top up spread over 12 months after a “sticker campaign”.

ChargeZone offers a free RFID card after downloading the app. I don’t remember how I applied for the same. I may have used the customer care number and ordered it over the phone. I have not used a ChargeZone charger to charge my car yet. Most of these are situated in five-star hotels and I do not frequent these places in most cities.

RELUX chargers which are also abundant in Tamil Nadu was the last company to send me an RFID card. This was booked after sending a WhatsApp message to their customer care number. This company needed constant reminding and multiple calls to send a card. They claimed that the cards are available at the restaurants which offer DC fast charging on the highways. This however was not true as the cashiers sitting at counters of these restaurants had not heard of such a thing before. The card costed me 300₹ and looks like a debit card and was activated only after a call back to their customer care. I have not had the opportunity to use it yet.

JIO BP does not offer RFIDs to customers like us who own a single BEV. They have kept the cards only for fleet operators or for people who own more than 6 EVs.

In summary, although RFID cards for DC fast charging is a great option, there are few instances (IMO) where their benefit has only been ostensible. If they were as seamless as they claimed, fast charging would be just a plug-n-play affair for EV owners. I suppose as of now, it’s an alternate way to initiate fast charging of an EV if the phone connectivity is poor or the app is down while attempting to charge a car. Having said that, the ZEON RFID has worked every time without fail.

Here's what BHPian Rada had to say on the matter:

This is so true. I have been using the Zeon RFID for a year now and it has always given consistent result on Zeon's ABB chargers.

Having said that, last week I tried to initiate charging on a Zeon Exicom charger (60KW) which I think was recently installed. The location was A2B, Tindivanam. Here, the RFID did not work seamlessly and I had to initiate charging finally by scanning the QR code.

Mine is a 2022 MG ZS EV, btw.

Here's what BHPian twinalco had to say on the matter:

Hope they bring all players onto a common Rupay based network for easy payment, like the NCMC or UPI. A common QR code/ Paywave to manage balances will be easy.

Here's what BHPian ALTIMAed had to say on the matter:

The need of the day is definitely to have a UPI based payment option for EV chargers. It creates a lot of inconvenience to download and specially top up each company's wallet. It might be so that I need to use x company's charger just once but I have to load their wallet by a minimum amount of Rs 300/- the balance never to be used again, unnecessarily blocking funds in each wallet. Comments and opinion please

Here's what BHPian Thilak29 had to say on the matter:

RFID cards or tags are best companion for EV charging, it saved my day at places where network either gave up on me or phone died down with poor attention to phone battery (with all attention on car battery!) during my EV road trips.

Zeon works best and the rest of them were reliable too largely. I believe Autocharge is the most ideal state to reach with UPI mandate in place. Second best thing to have is NMC like common Rupay card valid across CPOs, unsure why they are not considering this option already.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.