Electromobility: falling prices for ad hoc charging in sight

Ad-hoc charging without a contract could solve the current bad situation at the charging stations. The AFIR enforces payment terminals, and that changes things.

Tesla owners have access to the Supercharger network without a basic fee. However, they can also charge at other operators, as can be seen here. Incidentally, you can see a dysfunctional battery exchange station from Nio in the background.

(Image: Christoph M. Schwarzer)

at 1:57 pm CEST

8 min. read

Autos

Christoph M. Schwarzer

This article was originally published in German and has been automatically translated.

It cannot and will not stay as it is: The electricity prices at the public charging infrastructure are far too high. One example of many is the ADAC e-charge tariffs that have just been introduced. The club has changed its partner - instead of EnBW, Aral Pulse is now the associated e-mobility provider (EMP). From October 1, a kilowatt hour of traction current will cost a flat rate of 57 cents when charging at Aral Pulse locations. For other operators, abbreviated CPO for Charge Point Operator, it is 75 cents. These are "exorbitant prices", say the initiators of a petition. This could be remedied from 2025 as a result of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR): Ad-hoc charging, which is particularly expensive today, will become low-cost competition for roaming.

The idea of roaming, i.e. being able to charge anywhere in Germany or even Europe with a single contract with a provider, has effectively been abolished - by the EMPs, who actually want to profit from roaming because they bind customers to them through basic charges. For example, EnBW charges 39 cents/kWh at its own charging stations for a monthly basic fee of 17.99 euros for the "L" frequent driver tariff. Other CPOs charge up to 89 cents/ kWh. In this way, EnBW and many other market players are trying to increase their own capacity utilization and squeeze out competitors - at the expense of electric car drivers. The anger is particularly great among those who sometimes or always rely on the public charging infrastructure. They are sure to be ridiculed by diesel dieters. That is the current situation.

Even if the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) claims otherwise, the charging infrastructure is sufficient and there is also an expansion. However, queuing can be observed at peak times such as at weekends or at the start of the vacations. Electric car drivers have to wait. Most of the time, however, the rush is low.

(Image: Nationale Leitstelle Ladeinfrastruktur)

Avoiding the formation of an oligopoly

Johannes Pallasch from the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure says: "We have recognized the situation. What we need is a level playing field, i.e. a level playing field for all market participants to avoid oligopolies. Consistent implementation of the AFIR could lead to an improvement." What Pallasch means, among other things, is greater price transparency for customers in both point-of-sale and contract-based retail. In B2B business, on the other hand, prices are often based on ad hoc rates, and these are kept artificially high by some CPOs.

The Latin "ad hoc" translates roughly as "on the spur of the moment". In relation to the charging infrastructure, it means that an electric car driver can come to a charging station without a contract and activate electricity. However, due to the usually excessive tariffs, ad hoc has so far been more of an emergency option.

The current tariff situation could be remedied by the EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR): Since April 13, the AFIR has enforced payment terminals at all DC locations with 50 kW or more charging power, i.e. effectively at all of them. From January 1, 2027, locations along the most important European transport routes (TEN-T) must also be retrofitted.

(Image: Nationale Leitstelle Ladeinfrastruktur)

AFIR enforces card payment

However, the current situation could make ad hoc charging the most attractive choice in the medium term because it is the cheapest option, and thus a tough competitor for contract providers. The basis for the potential change comes from the European Union, which requires the installation of payment terminals via the AFIR: all new DC sites with a capacity of at least 50 kW built since April 13, 2024 must have a payment terminal. From January 1, 2027, this will also be the case for existing charging stations along the main European transport routes (TEN-T). For AC charging points, on the other hand, the mandatory QR code is sufficient for activation. The AFIR therefore initially incurs costs, which operators regularly complain about. For users with electric cars, on the other hand, this means that they can pay directly with any standard card and without a contract.

Superfluous intermediate earners

For the operator itself - i.e. not the EMP associated with roaming - this can result in a major cost advantage. The company ev-pay demonstrated how this works at the Power2Drive trade fair in Munich. With ev-pay's software, ad-hoc charging at payment terminals can be simplified in compliance with calibration law and in a backend-neutral manner. The principle: the many intermediate earners such as the so-called CPO aggregators are simply eliminated. As a result, the CPO has a higher margin; it therefore earns more and can also offer the end customer a much better price.

Ad hoc-Laden wird günstiger (3 Bilder)

Ev-pay bietet eine eichrechtskonforme Lösung an, bei der die Zwischenverdiener wie die CPO-Aggregatoren wegfallen. Das Ad hoc-Laden ohne Vertrag, das heute vielfach künstlich verteuert wird, hat so das Potenzial, die günstigsten Tarife überhaupt anzubieten.
(Bild: ev-pay)

"We enable the operator to sell directly without having to go through third-party providers," explains Dominik Freund from ev-pay. Even dynamic pricing depending on the electricity exchange price, as with Tesla, can be implemented without any problems. ev-pay plans to start field trials from September 2024 and roll out the finished product, including all billing formats required for the CPO, from 2025.

Transparent price table

Charging will be simpler with ev-pay's solution: electric car drivers will not need a contract with a monthly basic fee and will find a price per kilowatt hour either in a web app or directly at the charging point. The much-discussed price table thus has the chance to become a reality. Payment is authorized in advance by the payment terminal and a QR code specific to the charging process is displayed. The charging process itself can also be monitored with ev-pay; anyone shopping in the supermarket can check the SOC (State Of Charge), the charging capacity, the kWh already charged and the total price at any time. Dominik Freund and Felix Blum from ev-pay once developed the precursor to this solution for Wallbe. Today, the most important ad-hoc provider in Germany still relies on it: Aldi Süd.

Aldi Nord prepares charging infrastructure

There are charging points at more than 550 Aldi Süd stores. A kilowatt hour costs 39 cents for fast DC charging and 29 cents for AC charging. Who offers less? All without a basic fee and without a contract. Just ad hoc. If you really want to, you can of course charge at Aldi Süd with the contract of your EMP; presumably hardly anyone who has to pay for the electrical energy themselves will do this because it is more expensive. This offer is not yet available at Aldi Nord; however, the company has stated on request that "we are currently preparing a customer-oriented development of charging facilities in our parking lots". The discounter has 2,200 stores. Charging in front of the store will soon become even more relevant.

EU Competition Commission not yet able to act

If the direct sale of electricity becomes established along the lines of ev-pay or Aldi Süd, this would be a cost advantage for electric car drivers. Where there are winners, there are also losers. These would be the e-mobility providers who are currently trying to retain customers with high basic fees and steer them one-sidedly with glaring differences in tariffs between their own charging stations and those of third-party providers.

A change is unlikely to become noticeable until 2025 at the earliest. One thing is clear: something is happening in the market for traction current providers. Ad-hoc charging is becoming a competitor or at least a significant alternative to contract-based roaming. There are also repeated indications from Brussels that the Competition Commission has become aware of the distorted market in Germany. The fact that no action has yet been taken is probably due to the recent elections to the European Parliament: the new Commission has not yet been constituted. When that happens, there will presumably also be an initiative from there.

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(vbr)