The boss of a large energy company raises the problem of the proliferation of payment cards

If car manufacturers have managed over time to standardize the connections of electric vehicles on charging stations, it is not the case with payment systems, far too numerous according to the boss of ABB.

The brakes on the adoption of the zero emission car are already numerous (price, discount, recharge, autonomy …), but there are some that represent a real daily constraint for owners: payment systems.

As surprising as it may seem, it is not that frequent to find terminals where a bank card is enough: most of the time, you need a special subscription card, often specific to the operator of terminals. A real headache denounced by the boss of electrification at ABB, one of the world leaders in automation and energy management, which is notably the supplier of charging stations for the Ionity joint venture.

“The biggest problem concerns payment data. Standardization could happen quickly if there is a common commitment from different companies,” said Tarak Mehta.

In reality, the problem lies in the fact that the data collected by the operators is very useful for sometimes commercial purposes. These same operators therefore do not want to share and open up the system with the competition in order to maintain their market share. But that at the expense of the user and faster development of the electric car. And without a unified payment system, no salvation.