As electric vehicle (EV) adoption accelerates globally, supporting the charging infrastructure to meet growing demand is an urgent priority for industry stakeholders and policymakers across the world. The promotion of simple, convenient, and interoperable card-based payments at charging stations is a key part of the requirement if the expectations of EV users are to be met.
In this EMV® Insights post, Soumya Chakrabarty, Chair of the EMVCo Electric Vehicle Open Payments (EVOP) Task Force, explores why EMVCo launched its EVOP initiative, and how it responds to industry demand for a secure and seamless EV charging payment experience.
What are the current challenges associated with EV charging payments?
The growing adoption of EVs marks a new era in global mobility. While paying at the fuel pump is seamless and secure, the EV charging payment experience presents a speed bump. Drivers may need to register for multiple proprietary EV charging station accounts, causing unnecessary friction and inconvenience during the charging payment experience.
EMVCo’s mission is to explore how this fragmentation could be addressed through an open payments approach, making the charging payment experience as convenient as paying for fuel at the pump.
Why is EMVCo best placed to investigate this challenge?
As a global technical body that helps make safe, reliable, and convenient payments* possible anywhere in the world, EMVCo has a proven track record of bringing the payments community together to create increased trust, consistency and reliability for emerging solutions. It creates and manages EMV Specifications and programmes, which provide a foundation on which globally interoperable payment products can be built.
Following direct industry feedback from the Secure Technology Alliance, EMVCo’s EVOP Task Force is exploring how EMV payment technology can support a simple and consistent card-based payment experience across multiple EV manufacturers and charging stations.
EMVCo also recognises that industry insight and expertise are crucial to ensure a specification addresses all relevant use cases and requirements. It is collaborating with stakeholders across the EV ecosystem such as CharIN, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Secure Technology Alliance. Beyond this collaboration, EMVCo is also seeking wider feedback and input from EV industry stakeholders from around the globe.
How is EMVCo exploring the need for open payments?
EMVCo has launched an EVOP initiative and created a dedicated task force to explore the development of a global, interoperable, secure payments specification.
EMVCo is investigating how the wide adoption of the ISO 15118 Standard – which specifies a digital communication protocol between the EV and the charging station – could enable a simple, secure and seamless card-based open payment experience for drivers across charging networks.
What are the key benefits of this approach?
1. A simple and consistent EV charging payment experience
An EMV EVOP Specification could enable a card-based payment capability within the ‘Plug & Charge’ experience across multiple EV manufacturers and charging station operators.
Drivers would be able to pay for charging with their preferred payment card, without registering for various memberships, creating dedicated accounts, or pre-loading funds. This is particularly beneficial for consumers who are less familiar and confident with digital products and services.
2. Increased choice and flexibility
An EVOP Specification could support multiple card-based payment data sources to reflect different payment preferences and use-cases. It would also be designed to be flexible to potentially support other card-based payment credentials in the future and it could co-exist with, and complement, other payment options such as ISO 15118 contract-based payments.
As the specification would be initially focused on payments for single charging sessions, it could also be flexible to support various use-cases (such as rental cars, fleet cars and guest drivers).
3. Simplified and scalable deployment
The installation of external payment acceptance terminals on charging stations presents implementation and user experience considerations. An EVOP Specification could be enabled within an integrated ‘Plug & Charge’ open payment experience, removing the need for external payment acceptance hardware to be installed and/or upgraded on charging stations.
The specification could also streamline compliance, by leveraging data fields and attributes based on existing EMV technologies. This could minimise additional security compliance requirements, while promoting robust security.
How can organisations get involved?
Active engagement and collaboration are key to EMVCo’s proven model for creating and evolving globally adopted specifications. This is why EMVCo is seeking feedback and input from EV industry stakeholders from around the globe, including:
- EV manufacturers
- Charging station operators
- EV technology partners
If you represent one of these organisations, you are encouraged to become an EMVCo Advisor to fully engage with EMVCo and the broader EV industry on this important initiative.
*EMVCo’s scope specifically relates to payments using a physical or digital card to pay for goods or services from an account.
