I'd rather see them compete on features, especially charging speed and ease of use. Hopefully the best system will become a standard, but even the mediocre ones

I'd rather see them compete on features, especially charging speed and ease of use. Hopefully the best system will become a standard, but even the mediocre ones should improve in response to competitive pressure. If the manufacturers agree on a standard so early in the development of the electric car industry, we'll be stuck with it for a while because there won't be anything pressuring them to improve it. All of this ought to be moot for buyers anyway. When I travel to countries with different electrical plugs than my own, I just bring an adapter. Hopefully the car charging systems will develop in such a way that it's possible for electric car owners to just keep a few adapters in their trunks when they need to charge somewhere other than their homes.