258 - The Roaming Episode

Gary:

Hi, I'm Gary and this is EV Musings, a podcast about renewables to electric vehicles and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners. On the show today we'll be looking at roaming.

Gary:

Our main topic of discussion today is roaming. A couple of years ago, I was in France and I was returning to the ferry to come back to the UK and alongside a couple of friends of mine in other electric vehicles, we needed to stop for a charge at one of the motorway service stations over there. We pulled into one about an hour south of Dieppe on the N27 to find a row of brand new ultra-rapid chargers from a company I'd never heard of before, Vallet Carburants.

Everything was in French, course, and there were QR codes suggesting we download an app, as to be expected. We could probably have paid with contactless, but there's always the fees associated with that in a foreign country, etc, etc. Undeterred, I reached into my wallet and extracted an RFID card linked to a UK roaming service, flashed the card against the appropriate reader, and literally within a second or so the card had been recognized and we were able to charge.

blic Charge Point Regulations: 2023

So to start, roaming is basically the ability of a charge point to accept payment and authorization via an app or service that is not directly provided by the ChargePoint operator that is operating the ChargePoint. Essentially, EV payment roaming allows drivers to use a single account to access and pay for charging services at various ChargePoint networks without needing separate accounts for each network. It's aimed at enhancing user convenience and helping to boost EV adoption. It can be via an app, or an RFID card and it can be linked to an individual or to a car. Now in the seven years since I've been driving electric and the six years since I've been doing this podcast, the UK has made some pretty significant strides in EV infrastructure. But with multiple charging networks, each having their own apps and all their own RFID cards and their own pricing interoperability remains a challenge. Roaming is a way to address this by enabling, in theory, seamless transactions across multiple networks. According to the government's UK electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, interoperability is a cornerstone to improving the charging experience and accelerating EV adoption. In other words, relying on everyone having a different app for every charge point operator probably won't end well. I know that if Tom Callow, ex-BP charge master in MyEnergy and former podcast guest is listening to this, he'll be screaming at his device "But Contactless solves all these problems!" And he's probably right. To a point.

In theory, Contactless is the universal solution to interoperability. It's something you already have, it doesn't need a separate account, it works in just about all countries, etc. But in practice there are a number of downsides. Firstly, there's the pre-authorization bit. With your Contactless card, you're going to be charged a hefty pre-authorization fee in some cases each time you connect. For roaming services, that isn't always the case, although the plug surfing roaming service will also allocate cash to pre-authorization when you charge. Also, as I experienced last year, if I go to a car park and use, say, a connected curb charge while I'm parked, there's no contactless reader on that. But with connected curb, I can use my roaming service without worrying about the contactless payment, which means that in practice, contactless payment is not the universal solution to everything.

blic charge point regulations: 2023

They're mostly used on the continent where Gridserve don't operate. So why would a CPO deliberately choose a roaming provider that wasn't one of the bigger ones or indeed one of the more well-known ones? Well, there's one word, control. Every time someone uses a CPO app or RFID card, that gives the CPO control over the customer that is lacking when they use contactless or a roaming service. Every charge done via an app or a CPO RFID card is tracked and logged by the CPO, it helps them form a picture of the customer and the charging habits. With that data, they can, in theory, provide a much better service to you as a customer, but that might be a much better service from the point of view of the ChargePoint operator, not from the point of view of the customer. For example, over a year, if you only used the ChargePoint operator's app they'd be able to build a pretty good picture of your charging habits, your movements, your vehicle performance, and lots of other things. If you pay by contactless, especially if you use multiple different contactless cards, they lose that overall picture. The same with roaming. The data around the customer and the payment are not accessible by the ChargePoint operator if you use a roaming app or RFID card. That all resides with the roaming service. Yes, the ChargePoint operator can tell how fast you charge, average charge speed, whether it was CCS or Chademo, total energy used, and a couple of other things related to your battery. But that just becomes individual charging sessions. If they can link that to you as a customer, it's very powerful and valuable to the Chargepoint operator. There's also potentially a cost issue to bear in mind here, and we'll come to that later.

So let's have a look now at who are the main roaming operators in the UK. There are probably four roaming operators that work in the UK that are well known and widespread. These are ZapPay Octopus Electroverse, Shell Recharge and OVO Charge Anywhere that used to be called Bonnet. Each of these covers a large chunk of UK networks and in some cases European networks, but none of them covers all. For example, I can't use any of these networks and charge at say a BP Pulse charger as they don't roam with any of these four services. In fact, there isn't a single roaming service that can be used to access charges in all of the top 10 networks as listed in a Zapmap customer satisfaction survey for last year. And we'll come back to that point a little later.

You may know of other services operating the UK and I'm not saying that there aren't any, but in terms of the UK based customer base, I would suggest that these four are probably the most well-known. So, how do these roaming operators make money? It's quite simple. They take a margin on each kilowatt hour that you buy through them. Some of them will keep the price you pay the same as the contactless amount and then get the electricity at a discount from the charge point operators. Others will pay the charge point operator the same price as the contactless price and add a margin on to cover their costs. Here's Melanie Shufflebottom from podcast sponsor Zapmap who operate the Zappay service with a bit more detail.

Melanie:

ChargePoint networks of course set their own direct pricing. They may have a number of different price levels dependent on the payment method. So payers who go via contactless may be a little higher than via their app or some kind of membership scheme. And increasingly we're also seeing the rise in off-peak pricing options. In terms of roaming, the market has really moved on in the last 12 months. At ZAPMAP we now roam with around 30 different ChargePoint networks across en route, destination, on-street use cases and covering tens of thousands of charges across the country. This gives EV drivers choice and convenience. In terms of determining the price, there are different models. Either the Chargepoint network agrees the price directly with the aggregator, typically the pay-as-you-go price, or they provide a roaming price, which aggregators are then free to add an additional amount on top. Currently at Zapmap, given the price of public charging is an issue for drivers, we don't mark up these roaming prices, and in fact we offer discounts via our Zapmap premium offering. This works well when the roaming price is around the pay-as-you-go price. However, in some cases, the ChargePoint network's roaming price is significantly above the pay-as-you-go price, and we and other aggregators have no choice but to pass this on to drivers. It's not really a good scenario as it creates confusion and a lack of trust. Thankfully, this is not common, and most ChargePoint networks recognize the key value that aggregators' apps such as Zapmap offer, bringing EV drivers to their chargers and also see the importance of giving EV drivers simple pricing and the choice of how to pay.

Gary:

So for example, if you visit an Osprey charging site and pay using Zap Pay, you'll be charged the same price as if you paid with a contactless card. But if you use plug surfing at a grid surf site, you'll be charged a penny more per kilowatt hour for the privilege. I've already touched on this a little when it comes to why I prefer roaming to contactless, but let's go through some of the pros and cons. The primary advantage is the convenience for users who no longer need multiple accounts or RFID cards for different charging networks. As EVA England points out, simplifying the payment process encourages more users to consider EVs potentially boosting adoption. If I don't need 35 different apps to access 35 different charging networks, it's going to remove friction and make it easy for me to charge, right? The second benefit of roaming services is that they're usually easier to get receipts from.

Now we talked before on the show about the fact that there isn't a single standardized simplified method of getting receipts from ChargePoint operators. Pretty much every CPO does it a different way. Some need you to go to their website. Some need you to scan a QR code. Some need you to use their app. Some need you to make a sacrificial offering to the Charger Gods and promise them control of your firstborn. But roaming services tend to have a list of all your charges in their history. And with the tap of each line, you can produce a receipt automatically. Any charging session, any charge point operator, very easy.

Thirdly, we've talked about the pre-authorization, but it's a key thing. Different roaming services treat it differently. Zappay will lock £30 temporarily in your account and allow you to pay using Apple Pay or Google Pay. Octopus Electroverse won't allocate a pre-authorization if you're an Octopus customer. It just charges the full amount of the charge to your monthly electricity bill.

Next, by enabling drivers to access a broader range of charge points, roaming can lead to better utilization of the existing infrastructure. It can reduce waiting times and it can increase network efficiency. If you're passing by a network that accepts different roaming partners, you're more likely to charge there than if you're limited to a single network because that's the only app you've downloaded. So overall utilization will increase as new drivers come on board. They want the easiest, most friction-free way of charging. Outside of plug and charge, which we covered a few weeks back, a roaming RFID card or app is probably the least hassle.

And finally, with roaming, drivers can plan their journeys more efficiently without worrying about charging compatibility, thus making the overall EV driving experience better. It's much easier to plan a long distance journey if you know that whichever CPO you use, you can access it with the same system, the same car, the same app rather than trying to navigate to the two or three CPOs for whom you've got their specific app or their specific RFID card. However, there are challenges and downsides for roaming too. Firstly, integrating roaming across different networks involves complex agreements and in some cases, some significant backend work. Charge point operators must collaborate and ensure system compatibility, can be resource intensive.

large networks: 2024

If you look at the medium sized networks, there's Fastned, Ionity, AppleGreen, MER, Evyve, EVPoint and ESB Energy.

Zapmap covers 10 of those 17. Electroverse covers 13. Show Recharge covers most of them, but not GridServ and BP Pulse. Ovo doesn't cover Gridserve, Instavolt, Shell Recharge and BP Pulse, et cetera. You get the idea. On top of that, different services have different geographic coverage. Plug surfing, Shell Recharge and Electroverse re European wide. Zappay is UK only for now, although Zappmap covers charges all across Europe.

Now another issue is connectivity related. Most roaming services offer both an app and an RFID card for users. You can use either or both and Zappay will be rolling out an RFID card for their premium subscribers this year. If you've only got the app though, areas with low connectivity can be an issue. So bear this in mind. Another issue for roaming is price.

Service providers may incur additional operational costs which could be passed on to consumers. These costs if not managed effectively could counteract the simplification benefits from roaming. We've already mentioned that some roaming services take the standard rate and add on an uplift to cover their costs. In some cases it's a penny per kilowatt hour but it can be much much more than that. A charger nearby me is 55pms of kilowatt hour for 7kw AC charging if paid direct and 65p a kilowatt hour if accessed via shell recharge, for example.

ial steps towards meeting the: 2030

Moreover, initiatives like this are paving the way for greater interoperability through partnership models that span various regions and charging networks. And roaming services are not perfect in terms of either CPO or geographical coverage, but for my money, they're the better solution for ensuring seamless charging. So, roaming, is it a yay or a nay for you? Let me know, please.

info at evmusings.com.

It's time for a cool ev or renewable thing to share with you listeners.

This Port of LA terminal just ditched all propane forklifts for electric. SSA Marine has switched all forklifts at Berth 55 in the Port of Los Angeles from propane to electric, making it the first terminal to use 100% zero-emissions equipment in the country.

d equipment emissions free by: 2030

I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show. It was put together this week with the help of Melanie Shufflebottom from Zapmap. Thank you Melanie. I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show. If you have any thoughts, comments, criticisms or other general musings to pass on to me, I can be reached at info at evmusings.com. On the socials I'm on bluesky at evmusings.bsky.social. I'm also on Instagram at evmusings where I post short videos and podcast extracts regularly. Why not follow me there?

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Thanks as always to my co-founder Simone. You know he's incredibly annoyed at his local council who've decided to enact a law banning the use of electric unicycles inside the main Tesco store in town. They think it could be dangerous and encourage anti-social behaviour. Simone claims it's all perfectly safe, but the council have hit back saying:

Melanie:

It's not really a good scenario as it creates confusion and a lack of trust.

Gary:

Thanks for listening. Bye!