Hitting the EV inflection point
This report shows trajectories of cost developments for the production of battery electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles, and the implications for the adoption of EVs in Europe.
What Electric Mobility Providers (EMP) should know about the current and future challenges and opportunities in designing sustainable pricing strategies for electric vehicle (EV) drivers is outlined below.
Consider a charging session in the not-too-distant future: The EV Driver arrives at the charging station. Christina had already checked her eMobility app to see if this station was open and if she could charge her EV with 350kW. She was already familiar with how to activate the charging station after going through the entire registration process. Christina came to a halt at the pricing section. Instead of the simple price per kWh she was used to seeing, the screen now displays a series of graphs, the first of which has “Price per kWh” on one axis and “Time” on the other.
Further graphs informed her of the change in parking fees over time, as well as the fact that the first 15 minutes are billed in 5-minute increments. She tried to look for more information, but pressing on the banner “Introducing dynamic pricing” only refreshed the page, causing the graphs to change each time. She drove away, perplexed by the complexities of this pricing model.
If Electric Mobility Providers (EMP) are forced to adapt the pricing structure set by Charging Point Operators, this situation could become a reality very soon (CPO).
When it comes to the current European EV market, simple B2C pricing models such as flat-rate pricing (e.g. 15€ per month) and mixed-pricing (0.30€ per kWh or 7.95€ per session for all charging points) are dominant. While this allows for clear communication with the customer, it exposes the EMP to significant financial risks by decoupling complicated B2B purchasing pricing from simple B2C pricing.
