If you only drive a gasoline-powered car, just imagine if you had to have previously set up accounts with gas station chains before filling up. Imagine having to hook up your bank account to those accounts and then use a card supplied by them rather than just swipe your credit or debit card and then going about your business. On top of that, imagine some gas stations used proprietary pump systems that only worked with one brand of car.

That's the world battery-only electric car drivers live in, and it's a stumbling block when it comes to the EV adoption rate. Electrify America and EVgo recently announced an 'interoperability agreement' to help simplify the US charging network. Think of this as another step towards eventual EV dominance.

The announcement from the two EV charging specialists tells us that EV owners will be free to use both networks without having to create new memberships, register new accounts, or payment methods for each service. The result will be more than 3000 DC fast chargers across over 1000 charging stations will be connected and make finding a charger easier for drivers.

President and chief executive of Electrify America Giovanni Palazzo said: "Connecting our two networks helps ensure EV drivers have the freedom to travel on their terms without concerns of where to charge their EV along the way." Cathy Zoi, CEO of EVgo said: "EVgo is committed to cross-industry collaboration to make fast charging for EV drivers as convenient as going to an ATM."

That's a good start, but using an ATM is still a pain and using a card from one bank in another's machine is not always smooth sailing, plus often there's an extra charge. What we want is for the aim is to make charging an EV as easy as pulling into the nearest gas station and paying there and then before pulling away again.

Whether that could happen now though is hard to tell as the new companies are looking to use current communication technology to lock customers into their service. That includes Tesla, who still insist on only offering its Supercharging network exclusively to people driving its cars.