Electric vehicle owner Brianne Van Gorder speaks about her frustrations using charging stations at one in San Diego on April 2, 2019. Less than a month ago, Van Gorder and her husband bought their first zero-emissions vehicle, a Volkswagen eGolf. (Eduardo Contreras/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS)

Brianne Van Gorder, of Rancho Bernardo, California, loves her new Volkswagen eGolf. But as a first-time owner of an electric vehicle, she’s not so crazy about finding a way to charge it when she is away from home.

Sometimes, she has trouble finding a public charging station. And once she has found a charging station, Van Gorder learned she must first download an app from the companies operating the charging station to get the electricity flowing into her bright-blue four-door.

“It’s so frustrating,” the civil engineer said. “I literally got this car about three weeks ago, and I’ve discovered you have to have an app for each one of them. It’s not like there’s a universal app.”

Van Gorder’s complaints echo many of the same concerns raised in a report called “Ready to Charge,” released this week by Environment California and two partners.

“We’re still at a point where it can be a pretty big adventure to charge your car when you’re not at home,” said Dan Jacobson, the group’s director, who longs for the day when charging an electric vehicle, or EV, is just as easy and quick as filling up a gasoline-powered car or truck.

But the 38-page report says the day-to-day experience for EV drivers has a long way to go to reach that place and points to a host of issues that threaten to slow the state’s hoped-for transition from internal combustion engine cars and trucks to zero-emissions vehicles.

Increasing the number of charging stations is one solution, but the report also highlighted more granular issues, such as incompatible chargers, opaque pricing and multiple payment methods.

Jacobson said the EV sector’s biggest problem is not the long-discussed issue of “range anxiety” — fear of the car conking out before a driver finds a charging station — “but when I get there, can I get a charge and will it work?”

Based in Sacramento, Jacobson flew to San Diego earlier this week, rented an EV and made a series of random stops at charging stations.

At his first stop, Jacobson pulled into the charging station at the 6th & A Parking Garage downtown. On the first floor, the garage has installed 16 parking spaces, each with dedicated Tesla Superchargers. But there’s a problem: Jacobson is driving a BMW i3, and Tesla chargers plug into Teslas only.

“We need chargers that can fit into any car,” Jacobson said, adding that universal chargers are standard in Europe.

California recently passed a law requiring “interoperability” on public charging stations but the Environment California report said implementation of the act is still in the planning stages and the law depends on companies entering agreements with each other.

Jacobson found a fast-charging station that worked on his BMW at the County Administration Center, but unless drivers are there on county business, they have to wait until after 5 p.m..

The report said EV networks such as Blink, ChargePoint and EVgo offer different payment methods, including mobile apps and credit cards. Some stations charge a flat fee, some charge based on the amount of electricity use and others charge by the length of time charging.

Jacobson wanted to charge his car to 85% and leave. But when the car hit that level, Jacobson could not take out the plug. An indicator light signaled when it was safe to remove the plug.

“The guy who I rented this car from told me, ‘That’s why I never charge anywhere but home,’” Jacobson said.

Van Gorder said navigating the ins and outs of public charging represents “a huge learning curve” for a newbie. The previous weekend, she and her husband drove to Carlsbad when the car needed a charge, but the charging station would not take a credit card.

“We’ve had the car for a few weeks, and we still love it,” Van Gorder said. But issues such as running out of juice always lurk in the back of her mind. “You never think about this when you’re low on gas. You say, oh, there will be a gas station on the next corner.”