It’s easier to charge at Circle K — as long as you’re not driving a Volkswagen or Skoda

Circle K offers the option to start EV charging automatically – without having to activate it via the app or tag.

With auto-charging technology, the car checks itself against the charger and your account. Hence, charging starts once you plug in the charging glove. All you have to do is enter your debit card into the Circle K Charge app and then register your car in the app the first time you charge.

The procedure is very simple. But unfortunately it does not work with all cars. All modern electric cars from Volkswagen, Skoda, Cupra and Audi Q4 E-tron do not work with this solution and probably never will. This is because these cars do not display their so-called MAC address to chargers – this is from a security point of view.

Regarding the auto charging problem is that it is theoretically possible to hack a car’s MAC address, creating a certain security issue. There is another similar technology called Plug & Charge which is significantly safer. Unfortunately, plugging and charging only works if several parameters are met – first of all, only a few car models support the protocol. Next, you must have a subscription through the car manufacturer, and finally it can only be used with Ionity – a charging solution that is currently very expensive compared to most other options.

Tesla, for its part, has an automatic system Charging has been around since time immemorial but it only works on Tesla cars. Other cars can use the Tesla app to start Tesla chargers.