Most EV drivers would like charging apps to offer more services beyond just charge point location and payment options. That’s according to our recent survey conducted in partnership with The EV Café.
We asked 200 EV drivers how they would feel about additional services being offered through an EV charging app. Here is a breakdown of their answers:
Securing customer loyalty
Smarter charging
Improving sustainability
Other services
Other services not covered in the research could include embedded finance services such as loans for smaller CPOs, insurance options, card issuance, credit, data analytics, accounting and payroll, and inventory management.
How to do it
CPOs can position themselves to build these added value services by looking at their payment tools as a customisable platform, rather than a simple payment processing solution.
An illustration of this model comes from the retail industry. For a long time, retailers used point-of-sale devices from card-issuers which simply processed the payment. More recently, innovators like Square and Clover have shaken things up by providing software platforms that can handle payments in lots of different ways, but also bundle in services like accounting, inventory management, and data analytics, while providing a single easy-to-use user interface where businesses can keep track of everything.
Whilst EV charging comes with a specific set of challenges that are different from retail, we believe that the platform approach – when built specifically around EV challenges and technical infrastructure – can enable not just smoother payments but also provide a foundation for added value services which generate new revenue streams. These needn’t be limited to apps. Open-loop digital wallets and cards, for example, will allow fleet operators – many of whom are frustrated by the limitations of a closed-loop system – to offer their users additional services on top of EV charging payment.
Paythru offers a software platform built around the needs of EV payments and designed to allow off-the-shelf or bespoke services to be implemented on top. Contact us to discuss how we can help.
