The team at Hydra EV discuss why contactless payment is the way forward for EV chargepoints.
The UK government announced its aims for the national EV charging infrastructure earlier this year. In addition to its goal to increase the number of publicly available chargepoints tenfold (from the current 30,000 chargers to 300,000) by the end of the decade, it also mandated that the transaction process must be simplified for the consumer.
Chief amongst its requirements was the adoption of contactless payment facilities to end the current ‘App-overload’ confusion experienced by many EV drivers, whereby they have to download and register multiple smartphone Apps to be able to access the various charging facilities.
Consumer concerns
Which?, also revealed the results from a consumer survey where it stated that a staggering 61% of EV drivers had experienced some kind of problem with paying for a charging session. 18% of respondents who had given up using public chargepoints cited payment options as the main reason why and 84% – more than 8 in 10 of users – stated that they would prefer to use contactless payments or chip’n’pin terminals to pay for charging rather than an App.
It’s easy to see why some of the national CPOs (charge point operators) such as Shell and BP would prefer customers to use App technology, as this can help track their usage and attempt to lock them in by offering deals and incentives to only use their networks.
However the massive growth required in public chargepoints will not be facilitated by a handful of larger CPOs and local authorities alone. It will require investment and adoption by numerous smaller operators, independent businesses and housing associations. The public will need to be presented with a seamless transaction process to aid wide-scale adoption of EVs.
EV chargepoint distributor, Hydra EVC, based in Rayleigh, Essex has partnered with Nayax, the global cashless solutions provider to build its contactless payment terminals into its products.
For the EV driver it means they simply swipe their payment card (it also works with Apple Pay and Google Pay) plug in their EV and press start. The company operating the EV chargepoint can set the prices charged, monitor usage and maintain the chargepoint remotely via Hydra’s cloud-based management systems.
For companies looking to generate additional revenue from their investment into workplace EV chargepoints, free access to charging can still be granted to staff by the use of RFID cards or a smartphone App. All the payment terminal does is offer an additional payment method and potential additional revenue.
Easy installation
The Nayax terminals can be added to both AC and DC chargers and for the installer, commissioning them is no more complex than a standard chargepoint. Instructions are presented on screen and all the installer has to do (apart from connecting the power) is to make sure the chosen communication method is activated.
Both the Nayax payment terminal and the Hydra EV charger can use WiFi, wired RJ45 ethernet or a 4G data SIM for remote communications, depending on the available networks on-site. The rest of the configuration, maintenance and management, is handled remotely.
To browse the Hydra EV range of chargers, click here
