Just out of interest, are these charging points in forecourts in the same place as the petrol pumps, or are they in parking areas at the front/side? And how much do they charge..and how? There are charging spaces in my hospital multi storey car park, but I've never had a close look at them to see if you have to pay for charging. How does it work? Surely you can't pre-pay becasue you don't know how long you'll need. Or do you put your card details in first and then it charges you for whatever you've used?
Some charging points are free, as an encouragement to use their services, e.g. Tesco, Co-op and some restaurants, pubs, etc. Charge rate for some of these can be quite low.
Normally it is through an App (what isn't, these days) which takes care of the control and charging. Just log in to the App, confirm, and it will send a message to the charger to start. Some give you 15mins of charge before it needs confirmation. Some use a pre-pay RFID card, and some may use a credit card reader, but an App is by far the most common method.
Charging can be what they want. Seen prices of up to 45p/kWh. Fast chargers may be even more, to the point where they are no longer competitive with fuel. At home rates, though, I am saving roughly 1/4 of the price compared to my last car. As a guide, it costs me roughly £5 to get 150 miles of range.