Countless different providers, inconsistent tariffs and high roaming charges: anyone wanting to charge their electric vehicle can sometimes find it hard to keep track. This is holding back the progress of e-mobility. But now that’s over.
Many people who drive electric cars know the situation: it’s pouring with rain, but you have to charge. So you stand in front of the charging station in the rain, fiddling with your charge card. Or with the mobile app of one of the many e-mobility providers in order to start the charging process, including payment. But when you enter your credit card number, the app merely complains, ‘Your details are invalid’, because the display is wet and no longer recognises any commands. Second attempt. Third attempt.
‘It’s complicated and annoying,’ says Peter Arnet, Head of BKW Smart Mobility. ‘And in the end, you often don’t really know how much you have actually paid. This is because the providers are not always transparent about the costs.’
Those days are over. Because BKW, together with Twint and Hectronic, the company behind the payment service for regular filling stations, has developed an innovative payment system for EV charging stations. “The principle is simple: all you need to do with the Twint app is scan the QR code at the charging station. The price is then displayed, which means you can see at a glance what a kilowatt hour costs at this charging station. You then press start and the process runs,” explains Peter Arnet. A quick matter. And if it’s raining, you can start the Twint app while still in the car.
“We wanted to create a solution that is as simple as possible for everyone – and with Twint we have a platform that most people already trust,” says Martin Daniel, Managing Director of Hectronic Schweiz AG. Adrian Plattner, CSO at Twint, adds: “We are highly committed to ensuring that digital payment is not only simple, but also possible everywhere – now also at charging stations for electric vehicles.” The innovative overall solution is breaking new ground in terms of user-friendliness and transparency. “It not only makes the payment process faster and more straightforward, but also more cost-efficient. With over 5 million active users, we are making an important contribution to making access to electromobility even easier,” he emphasises.
Maximum security
But how secure is payment via QR code at a charging station? After all, warnings about quishing, i.e. phishing via fake QR codes, have been circulating for some time. Criminals stick these over regular QR codes and redirect customers to fake pages in order to obtain private (payment) data. Peter Arnet: “Our solution is tamper-proof. The QR codes come from Twint itself and are scanned directly via the Twint app. It immediately recognises whether a code is genuine or not.” So the new system has many advantages. Given this, the question arises as to why it is only coming now. “Many providers have no interest in making the process simpler. That’s because they earn money from roaming,” says Peter Arnet. Roaming is necessary in order to bring together different networks of charging stations. “This allows you to charge at different networks with a single card.” However, the providers agree certain prices among themselves for this service. This results in the additional costs that sometimes cause nasty surprises on the bill. “When the mobile phone age dawned in 2000, we had the same situation,” says Arnet. However, he by no means wants to talk roaming down.
“You need it when you introduce a new technology. But once the technology is there, there are simpler payment methods.” Just like the Twint system now. This also counteracts the tariff jungle that prevails in Switzerland. “There are thousands of different tariffs, depending on which card you use to obtain electricity at which charging station,” says Arnet. “With our Twint solution, we store a kilowatt price. So there are not different tariffs, but rather the kilowatt-hour price.”
Any provider can use it
The system has already been tested at the Grauholz service station near Bern. “Everything works perfectly. We also carried out an analysis to see who pays and how,” says the expert. “Around a third pay with Twint; it immediately became the most popular payment method. This is followed by the respective charging cards of the various providers.” The solution is soon to be rolled out throughout Switzerland. “At all BKW charging points and at those of its customers, such as Ikea.” In total, there are around 70 locations, with more to be added gradually. Discussions are also under way with other customers who operate public charging stations. The aim is for the Twint solution to be used as widely as possible, in other words across many networks. “We are open to talks with all providers in Switzerland. The system is intended to simplify e-mobility in general for everyone,” says Arnet. In addition to Twint, another innovation is on the horizon when it comes to paying at electric charging stations: “Europe, and Switzerland too, have decided that in future all fast-charging stations with an output of over 50 kilowatts will be equipped with a terminal to enable credit card payment,” says Arnet. He estimates that most charging stations should be equipped with this within two years. Here too, BKW offers a solution that is of interest to companies: “We will bring a card to market that works for credit card payments, but can also be used within the company, making internal company billing possible.” Another innovation that makes e-mobility easier.
Charging with Twint
BKW makes living spaces worth living in – and together with Twint and Hectronic, makes charging electric vehicles as easy as refuelling.
The benefits:
No contract with a charging card provider is required
No additional app is needed
Full price transparency, meaning there are no hidden costs or roaming charges
Pricing is exclusively determined by the charging station operator
Guaranteed maximum security with Twint, as the QR codes cannot be manipulated. This protects against “quishing”, i.e. phishing via QR code
The solution can be used by all charging station operators in Switzerland. Interested? Then get in touch with us.
