⚡ Card payment mandates @ public charging stations

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Here’s what we have for you today:

• Overview: Card payment mandates @ public charging stations 💳

• 2 Thoughts 💬

• 3 Links 🔗

• Memes of the week 🤡

Let's get into it!

Overview: Card payment mandates @ public charging stations 💳

Imagine this.

You are a tourist in Europe, excited to go on a road trip in a brand-new electric vehicle that you rented. Great torque, great range, and comfortable riding. After three hours of driving you need to take a stop and charge your vehicle at a fast charging station. You passed by several of them so you are confident that recharging is not going to be an issue. On this day it’s raining cats and dogs so you just want to plug in and go into the shop to grab some food.

When you plug in, you’re confused - you can’t just tap your smartphone or credit card. You will be left with scanning a QR code which guides you into a multi-step payment process. You will need to manually type in your credit card details and personal details to get a receipt.

Of course, the story above illustrates only one use case and is not universally applicable to all charging stations. But the underlying problem is not neglectable. This is why regulators and the EV charging industry have regular debates about charging station accessibility and options to pay for EV charging.

Last November we took a short dive into the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation’s (AFIR) requirement for credit card readers. While AFIR is a guiding framework for member states of the European Union that needs to be issued in national legislation, it does not apply to Non-member states of the EU. Recently, two non-member countries, Norway 🇳🇴 and United Kindom 🇬🇧, released legislation (drafts) that include mandates for contactless card payments at charging stations.

In the graph below we summarized the status of legal requirements for credit card readers at public charging stations in selected countries. As of today, credit card readers are mandatory in California and Norway (only for DC charging), while Germany and the UK have issued or drafted legislation that will make credit card readers mandatory in the future. Notably, the countries show differences in the following:

• Existing and new harging stations - mostly new charging stations are mandated to be equipped while existing are either exempted or retrofits are required in the future.

• Charging speed or current type (AC /DC) - commonly DC charging stations are targeted first while the requirement to equip AC charging stations is not always applicable.

2 Thoughts (on how people will pay for public charging in the future) 💬

How will credit card payments be adopted?

Credit Card Payment offers flexibility and low commitment (no sign-up for charging service is required). Therefore, it is likely the preferred solution for occasional users of public charging infrastructure. Additionally, almost everybody is used to credit cards and contactless payment, which lowers the entry barrier for 1st-time users. There are two companies that could heavily accelerate credit card usage - Apple and Google. Because of their offerings - maps services and contactless payment via smartphones - the companies could easily steer and make pricing for credit card payment (via digital wallets) more transparent for EV drivers and thereby accelerate its usage.

And what will happen to contract-based E-roaming?

E-Roaming via contract-based billing has been established within Europe 🇪🇺 and will not be fully replaced by credit card payments. For Charge Point Operators (CPO) and Electric Mobility Providers (EMP), e-roaming allows them to offer a more convenient customer experience, serve use cases like fleet charging and reward a loyal customer base.

• Advanced Pricing Strategies: E-Roaming has two distinctive advantages over ad-hoc credit card payments. EMPs and CPOs can

  • set preferential pricing schemes for loyal users within a contract-based service.

  • set and communicate transparent and future-oriented price signals to steer utilization by incentivizing users to charge at off-peak times.

• Convenience via Plug & Charge: Not having to do anything besides plugging in your electric vehicle is the most convenient customer experience because it eliminates another step in the customer journey. This is enabled by Plug&Charge technology which requires the EV to store a contract-based payment method.

3 Links 🔗

• Sales up 📈, margins down 📉: Tesla achieved a milestone in Q2, setting a new record for deliveries at 466,160 units. However, the multiple price reductions we previously reported, which significantly contributed to this record delivery volume, also impacted their profit margins simultaneously. In Q2 of 2023, Tesla's gross margins dipped, settling at 18.2%, a decline from the 19.3% seen in Q1 of 2023 and a notable decrease from the 25% reported in Q2 of 2022. Nevertheless, Tesla's margins remain superior to the majority of traditional automakers and far surpass those of other electric vehicle startups. Tesla often gets compared with Apple in terms of its ability to create innovate products and command industry-leading margins. Yet, compared with Apple’ gross margins which consistently hover around 40%, Tesla still has some catching up to do. (Link).

• Nissan goes NACS 🔌: Japanese automaker Nissan is the latest electric vehicle OEM to announce a switch to Tesla’s NACS connector in North America. This comes just a year after Nissan finally switched from the Japanese CHADEMO connector to the CCS connector in North America. Nissan engineers can’t be too happy about this 🙃 .

• NIO expands BaaS offering 🔋: Nio’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) leasing got extended by an option where EV drivers may now swap the battery for a so-called “long-range” (100kWh) for an extra fee of RMB 50 ($7) per day at any Nio swap station in China. This is an interesting use case as drivers can opt for a lower cost and lower weight battery (70kWh) for the majority of the time. But they can still upgrade to a long-range battery when they need it, e.g. for long-distance business trips or vacations.

Memes of the Week 🤡

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel:

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Pretty decent on ⚡Lotus Eletre outpacing others at the charging station! and wrote:

"i like the vibe of "I'm talking to you like you are an insider" keep it up. also like the occasional deep dives."

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