Charging your EV in public is the worst part of driving an electric vehicle, but not for the reasons you might think. Sure, charging takes longer than filling up a tank of gas, but the real enemy is the EV charging network's reliance on mobile apps.

Every EV charging network, from Tesla to Charge Point, has an app that can enable and manage charging sessions. And that causes so many problems.

Think about the last time you visited a gas station. You would have parked your car at the gas station, handed over your cash or credit card to pay, and filled up your tank. Depending on how crowded it was, the whole process would have taken at most 10 minutes.

Charging an EV is not like that. Even ignoring the time issue, the application situation makes the charging process more difficult than it needs to be.

Each network has its own app, so if you only use one charging company, this is not as big a problem. For example, Tesla owners only need the Tesla app to charge on the go, since they can only use the Supercharger network in the US. For the rest of us, however, and for Tesla owners who have purchased the CCS-Tesla adapter, this is a major problem.

Electricity is electricity, and with the right cables and ports, it doesn't make much difference where you get it. However, EV charging stations are operated by a variety of companies, all of which have their own companion apps. This means that if you want to use a charger from that company, you must download the app, sign up for an account, and give them your payment information.

Either you don't have the app or the app is not working properly. If you are unlucky, you will have to recharge elsewhere.

I currently have four recharge apps on my phone, only two of which I use frequently. One of them (GeniePoint) has only been charged once, when I had to drive to my brother's wedding in Wales.

And because there is no GeniePoint charger conveniently located near me, I still have £2.26 credit left on my account. This leads to a payment problem. While some apps charge your credit card for each charge, others add a credit to your account and ask you to pay up front. And that credit can usually only be retrieved by using a recharge station.

I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad system (although I don't particularly like it), but it adds another level of inconsistency to an already complicated process.

Different companies produce different apps, all of which vary widely in quality. Most of my charging is done with my local ChargePoint charger and I have never experienced any problems. It always finds my location accurately and I have never had any issues with it crashing, slowing down, or logging out in the middle of a charging setup.

The same is not true for everything: Ecotricity operates car charging points up and down the UK freeway network, but they can take quite a while to catch up, and in one annoying case, my phone crashed just before initializing the charge and did not fix itself It had to be rebooted because it did not.

Similarly, the numerous PodPoints installed in supermarket and shopping mall parking lots always seem to take a long time to load and figure out where I am; I am always left standing around waiting for the PodPoint to do its most basic tasks, and I am always left standing around waiting for the PodPoint to do its most basic tasks.

I have even come across charging apps that are not apps at all. Instead, I end up downloading a hyperlink from the app store to that company's website. To make matters worse, it didn't even show the charger I wanted to use, and the charger itself had no indication or identification, making it completely useless. [Zap-Map offers a service to help EV owners find charging points that are compatible with their vehicles, with a payment option called Zap-Pay. The idea is that only one account is needed to use multiple charging networks, which is a great idea, at least in theory.

In practice, it hasn't worked out so well. There are dozens of different charging networks throughout the UK, but only three are actually signed up for this network at the moment, and two of them are still unavailable until they are fully integrated.

Fortunately, the automakers themselves seem to be having more success in this regard. For example, Mini has agreements with several major UK charging networks such as BP Pulse, ChargePoint, and Osprey; like Zap-Pay, this ensures that drivers can recharge at any of the included charging stations with a single account.

On top of that, Mini owners can share this feature with up to 10 other user accounts, allowing them to lend their car to someone else. Unfortunately, no other EVs are currently available, as it assumes you have purchased and are driving an electric Mini.

The big problem is that these different companies have their own way of doing things. That may work to their advantage, but it is not very consumer friendly.

Here in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released a report condemning EV charging networks for a variety of reasons. One of these is that drivers may find the charging experience "difficult and frustrating." This is something I can attest to, even as a new EV owner.

Therefore, the CMA recommends four principles to improve the charging situation. Make it easier to find chargers, clarify costs, make all chargers accessible to cars, and most importantly, simplify payments. This is because the current app-based payment and charging system is far from simple.

On the other hand, the charging industry, if it is lucky, may decide that it is in everyone's interest to cooperate. Like Tesla's sudden decision to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla vehicles.

Indeed, in this instance, the change took off after Tesla was offered some incentives by the Norwegian government, but at least it is happening.

Similarly, government intervention may be needed elsewhere to say "get along or else" to charging networks: the EU has told high-tech companies to stop using proprietary chargers and adopt microUSB, and automakers have encouraged their vehicles to adopt the CCS charging standard encouraged them to adopt the CCS charging standard for their vehicles.

Governments, especially the current UK government, do not have a great track record with apps and technology. However, providing incentives to cooperate with charging networks, whatever those incentives may be, would help accelerate the process.

For my part, I just want a simple and effective way to charge, whether it be adding contactless card readers to charging stations or providing a unified app for all chargers in the country. Either way, let's end the havoc EV owners are in right now.