Delivering the best experience to customer, however they choose to pay
As the scale and utilisation of electric vehicle (EV) charging networks continues to grow, so too do the expectations of drivers. EV owners are increasingly expecting not only to be able to charge their vehicles at any convenient charging point – whoever operates it – but also to be able to pay using whichever method is most convenient to them at the time.
Regulators around the world are increasingly keen to open up charging point openness, interoperability and payment choice – for example, by mandating the use of card payment terminals. At the same time, Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and eMobility Service Providers (eMSPs) are offering greater choice and flexibility by enabling roaming across their charging networks – either via direct connections or platforms like Hubject and Gireve – including across international borders.
This drive to improve access and choice creates both opportunities and challenges for all players in the EV Charging ecosystem. Chief among these is ensuring that payment difficulties do not get in the way of a good customer experience at EV Charging stations.
The complex EV charging payments ecosystem
The EV Charging ecosystem comprises multiple operators, networks and systems, which leads to a fragmented payment landscape. CPOs whose core business is operating EV Charging stations can end up managing relationships with numerous payment operators, as they strive to offer drivers choice and convenience.
Let’s take a quick look at how the EV Charging payments ecosystem works.
There are four major payment operators/components in EV Charging. The payment terminal is provided by a terminal manufacturer and is usually integrated into the EV Charging station by the charging station hardware manufacturer. The terminal is connected to an acquirer (also known as an acquiring bank), a financial institution that processes card payment transactions on behalf of the CPO. The acquirer routes each transaction through various schemes to the card issuer, and ultimately ensures that the merchant receives the funds, which are debited from the client’s bank account. The payment terminal may be connected to acquirers via a gateway, a central system that manages the terminal’s lifecycle services.
When the client is authenticated via an app, fob or QR code, a Payment Service Provider (PSP) is involved, which accepts the online card payment and also connects to an acquirer to process the transactions to the merchant’s bank account..
The two acquirers mentioned above may be different financial institutions, adding another layer of complexity to the payment process.
Optimising user experience and security
Of course, all this complexity must be invisible to consumers; they simply want to pay using the most convenient method available when charging their vehicles – and for the majority of drivers, this means making an e-commerce payment via their CPO or eMSP.
The e-commerce payment experience must be quick, reliable, and secure – especially since charging typically occurs outdoors in unpredictable conditions. Nobody wants to be struggling to enter card details into a new mobile app, while standing in the rain or battling glare from the sun.
Security is also vital in these situations: EV Charging payments need to adhere to the highest security standards, including PCI DSS and GDPR compliance, to safeguard personal and payment data.
Worldline is one of the few payment companies that covers the entire payment value chain. In the EV Charging industry, Worldline is well known as a terminal manufacturer and acquirer, but less so as a PSP. However, Worldline has been a major e-commerce payment provider in Europe for over 40 years. We currently serve more than 250,000 e-commerce merchants, processing over 2.5 billion e-commerce transactions annually. We work with some of the largest e-merchants in Europe across various industries. All these e-merchants benefit from the efficiency, streamlined reporting, and pricing optimisation we offer as a single-source supplier.
Worldline advantages in EV Charging
There are significant advantages to using Worldline as a PSP for EV Charging:
- Efficiency – operators have one less supplier to manage, as Worldline will handle both e-commerce and card payment from a payment terminal as well as acquiring (acquiring transactions from e-commerce as well as from payment terminals) responsibilities. This saves operators time, and reduces the complexity of dealing with multiple payment partners, both commercially and in terms of support. They will never get bounced between different payment suppliers..
- Streamlined reporting – operators with multiple suppliers end up with multiple extranets and multiple sets of reports. With Worldline, operators have a single tool that provides visibility into all their e-commerce and associated acquiring transactions, as well as POS transactions.
- Pricing optimization – Worldline processes an enormous volume of e-commerce transactions, enabling us to offer customers highly competitive pricing on combined e-commerce and acquiring services.
By focusing on user experience, enhancing security, and offering integrated solutions, Worldline is not just meeting the current demands of EV drivers, but anticipating future needs. Our goal is to provide a fully integrated payment ecosystem that supports the growth of the electric vehicle market and contributes to a sustainable future.
Click here to find out more about our mobility and EV charging payments solutions.
EV Charging: RFID fobs, apps and cards
There are two basic ways to pay for EV Charging: via an app-, QR code- or RFID fob-initiated e-commerce payment, and using a credit or debit card directly at the charging station.
Many EV owners currently use one or more RFID fobs or cards to initiate charging at different providers’ charging stations. However, these RFID fobs are not used for payment; rather, they simply identify the user, who must register their bank card information on the charging provider’s platform, via a website or an app. Behind the scenes, this system works through e-commerce payments, specifically Merchant Initiated Transactions (MITs), triggered once a charging session ends or on a monthly basis.
Using a debit or credit card at the terminal is much like using a card at any other point of sale.
There are pros and cons to both payment methods. We won’t do a deep dive here but simply put, card payments at a terminal are ad hoc and anonymous, while e-commerce payments authenticated through an app, fob or QR code involve some kind of subscription to an CPO / eMSP, where the driver’s payment credentials and personal information are already saved. In addition, CPO / eMSPs offer various add-on services, such as remote charge state monitoring, historical analysis of spending and charging activities, and route planning.
Regulators are beginning to tackle what they see as unnecessary complexity in EV Charging. In Europe, for example, the European Commission’s recent Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) directive aims to improve payment transparency and access by encouraging card payments. This directive applies to new EV Charging stations with a power rating of more than 50 kW, and requires operators to retrofit all existing high-power stations beginning 1st January 2027.
Figures from ChargeUp Europe show that the vast majority of drivers (more than 80%) prefer to the subscription-based e-commerce payment model to POS card-based payment.
