Many countries and companies offer electric vehicle charging services for free. Typically they are build and operated by goverment money. However, sooner or later companies need to stop offering free services and start to ask money from charging. This presentation tells best practices we at Virta have learned in the transition from free to paid EV charging services.

1. VIRTA
TRANSFORM YOUR FREE CHARGING
SERVICE TO A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS

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People are not buying electric vehicles
because:
1.They feel that EVs are too expensive
2.They feel that the range of EVs is too short
3.They feel that there are not enough good
charging possibilities

3. Problem:
You need a big charging network so that
people would buy electric vehicles…
… but companies don’t want to invest in
charging networks if there are no
electric vehicles

4. Easy solution: Taxpayers’ money

5. … however, this is just a temporary
solution that won’t last for long

6. sooner or later you need to be able to
do business without government
subsidies

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Question we at Virta hear every day:
How can my organization change our free
charging network to a commercial
business?
Or how can we get at least some money
from the charging?

8. STORY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN
FINLAND

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INDIVIDUAL COMPANIES HAD BOUGHT AND
INSTALLED SOME CHARGING STATIONS
ALL CHARGING WAS FREE

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There was interest in some
companies to start invoicing money
from charging
However, the analysis showed
that creating payment
solutions is far too expensive

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What the Finnish companies were looking for was:
1. Operation costs need to be low and everything
needs to be fully automatized
2. Different charging stations need different prices
3. Roaming needs to be build in to the system from
day one

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SOLUTION
One technical platform
Available in many brands

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Energy utilities got state-of-the-art payment
solutions with a low cost
Customers got a big network with seamless
roaming, they can charge everywhere
New companies can easily join the network,
even the small ones with 1-2 stations

14. THREE MAIN THINGS WE LEARNED IN
FINLAND

15. 1. Your customers will accept that
you start asking money for charging
The sooner you move from free to paid services,
the easier it will be for you

16. 2. You need different payment options –
one size does not fit all
Plug-in hybrids need a totally different payment
models than a Tesla
Tourists who visit you once a year need different
payment models than the locals who charge daily

17. 3. You need to minimize and automate
your own work
do not go with a solution that requires you to manually
create user accounts and manually create and send
invoices
When you select a backend system,
focus on automation

18. WHAT AN OPTIMAL PAYMENT SOLUTION
LOOKS LIKE AT THE END

19. To maximize the profits of your
charging business, you need to
optimize the utilization of your
charging network

20. In other words, you want to have the
optimal number of electric vehicles
charging at your network all the time.
To optimize the utilization,
you need two things:

21. 1. You need different prices for
different stations
maybe even different prices at different
times of day?

22. 2. You need different prices for
three different customer groups
1. Visitors, who charge rarely
2. Active users, who charge regularly
3. Heavy users, who charge daily

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AT THE END YOU SHOULD HAVE THREE
PRICING MODELS
1. Direct payments for
visitors, no requirement
for membership or
subscription
2. Pay as you go –model
for active users with a
membership and
subscription
S
• 100
kWh
• 20 € /
month
M
• 250
kWh
• 40 € /
month
L
• 500
kWh
• 70 € /
month
3. Monthly packages for
heavy users who charge
their EVs daily

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ALSO, YOU NEED TO CONSIDER DIFFERENT EV
MODELS IN YOUR PRICING
Example: price for charging is 2 €/h on a 22 kW AC
charging station
1. Price for a plugin-hybrid, charging from Schuko:
87 cents / kWh
2. Price for a Tesla with a double charger:
9 cents / kWh
One size does not fit all

25. FIVE STEPS IN TRANSFORMATION FROM
FREE TO PAID CHARGING SERVICES

26. Step 1: Focus on communication
Tell your customers why you are asking
money for charging, they will understand.
Give your users a clear transition period
so that the change does not come as a
surprise for them.

27. Step 2: Offer something extra
Your customers will accept your prices
easier, if you offer them something more
than just the electricity.
For example: great mobile apps, 24/7
customer service, reservation possibility…

28. Step 3: You can start small, but be
prepared to offer different pricing plans
You can get started with just one charging unit and
with just the direct payments
However, sooner or later you need to create different
pricing plans for plugin-hybrids and Teslas, and for
tourists and heavy users

29. Step 4: Automate everything
Automate especially customers registration
process and your payment process, including
roaming payments.
Do not go for a solution where you need to
handle customers and invoicing manually.

30. Step 5: Optimize your charging
network utilization
To maximize your revenue, you need to optimize
your utilization.
To optimize your utilization, do tests: how does
the utilization and revenue change if you for
example give a -20 % discount for a week?

31. Result: You can get more
customers with paid solution
than with a free one
If you offer a great service, people are ready
to pay for it. If your service has problems,
people won’t use it even for free.

32. HOW WE AT VIRTA CAN HELP YOU

33. VIRTA’S SOLUTION FOR A FREE-TO-PAID
TRANSITION
1. We have done transition from free to paid service with
many companies – we have both the expertise and the
technology to do this
2. We have a fully automatized technical platform which is
used in several countries by over 20 energy utilities
3. With our solution you can offer wide range of payment
options to your customers – starting from simple direct
payments ending up to different monthly packages
4. It doesn’t matter if you are big or small – our payment
solutions scale up from a single charging unit to a country
wide roaming network
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34. Summary
From free charging to paid services
1. The sooner you start with paid services, the
easier it will be for you
2. Be prepared to offer different pricing plans,
differentiate for customer groups and vehicle
types
3. Choose a technical platform that
automates all your money traffic
We at Virta have an excellent
solution for you

35. I AM HAPPY TO DISCUSS MORE – PLEASE COME
AND MEET US ON ECARTEC
Jussi Ahtikari
Chief Technology Officer
Virta Ltd.
jussi.ahtikari@virta.fi
+358 50 5148489
solutions.virta.fi/en
twitter: @virtaltd
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