How charging stations and wallboxes enable billing of charging

Not a luxury, but a "must have": Anyone offering parking spaces or parking garages for customers can hardly avoid e-charging stations and wallboxes. After all, in many vehicle markets, more and more electric cars are being registered. And those traveling with an electric vehicle are constantly looking for parking spaces with charging stations. Retailers, as well as hotels and companies with parking facilities for guests, have long since adapted to this. 

But not only are new registrations of EVs and the number of installed charging stations on the rise, recently the trend toward charging for a fee has gained considerable momentum to share the increasingly expensive cost of electricity with the customers.  

While companies initially saw charging stations as a customer loyalty measure, the electricity from charging stations has now become too high and an important cost factor. No wonder that many German retail chains such as Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi Süd and Bauhaus already let customers pay at charging stations. "We assume that in the future free charging will hardly be offered. This is annoying for drivers of EVs, but it also opens up new opportunities for companies that previously didn't dare to offer paid charging because they would rather not alienate their customers," says Karl Kolmsee, Vice President Product  & Portfolio Management at Webasto Group.

Expensive electricity costs speed up a shift in thinking toward accurate charging and exclusive use for customers

If you would rather not be stuck with the high costs of charging stations, you need a charging station that measures, so something can do accurately precisely that billing. This is the only way to transparently pass on the charging to customers. However, this only works if the measurement meets the required standards, and billing can be handled as uncomplicatedly and customer-friendly as possible, for example along with the supermarket, restaurant, or hotel bill and not in separate transactions.  

However, many parking lots, parking garages of companies, retailers, and catering establishments such as hotels and restaurants offer charging stations whose measuring functions are not MID (Measuring Instruments Directive of the EU)- and calibration law-compliant (in Germany). “The MID-compliant meter of our new Unite Wallbox enables accurate billing and reimbursement of charging transactions. Soon we will also offer a calibration law-compliant version of the Unite,” says Kolmsee. Calibration law requires encrypted transmissions of meter readings and signatures of meter readings to ensure verification of meter readings–as required by the S.A.F.E. initiative.

The measurement data can be easily read out via the backend of the Unite and thus billed to customers in the company’s system. Of course, the backend also allows targeted operation of the Unite Wallbox in line with the company’s purpose. This way, you ensure that only the company's customers or employees charge electricity. "Using remote control integrated into the software, customers who park in the parking lot and are connected to the charging station, for example at the reception desk in the hotel or restaurant, can have the charging process enabled," explains Kolmsee. "Similarly, retailers could grant bonus charges to loyalty program users or identify the existing user base for billing." The wallbox thus becomes part of customer loyalty.

Webasto Unite allows company entry into CO₂ trade

"Charging stations with a high degree of measurement accuracy are not only suitable as a reliable basis for charging, they can also contribute to the business in other places. To achieve this, make them at least partially accessible to the public, for example, in the evening. Then the charging stations can take part in trading with CO₂ certificates," says Kolmsee.   

In Germany, the law on the greenhouse gas reduction quota provides operators of charging stations an income of currently up to 25 cents per kWh (up to €400/year/EV) - provided the CO₂ equivalents of the charging processes can be accurately determined. "We expect monetization via certificate trading to become a big issue across Europe. That's why we have equipped this function in new Unite wallboxes so that they can determine the necessary data," says Kolmsee. Similar regulations also exist in other EU countries.

Webasto Unite grows with the requirements of operators and their customers

Charging stations and wallboxes for companies with parking spaces and garages for customers and employees have become a "must". However, only with accurate MID- and calibration law-compliant measurement functions, such as those of the Webasto Unite, do the charging stations not become a cost trap, but help to attract and keep customers and employees in the long term and to bill charging processes accurately and transparently. 

► More Info