Expansion of Charging Infrastructure Faces Challenges!
Demand for e-cars is on the rise: According to a study by OnePoll on behalf of Nissan, 70 percent of drivers in Europe say they can imagine switching to e-mobility when buying their next new car. In Germany, the number of e-cars as of April 2021 is just under 350,000 vehicles, according to Statista.
According to the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), one million charging points would be needed by 2030 to cope with the rapid transformation process to e-mobility. However, as of July 2021, the number of charging points available is only around 24,000.
Number of Newly Installed Charging Stations Almost Seven Times Lower than Target
According to Statista, the number of charging points rose to 24,400 in the third quarter of 2021, but this is not enough, emphasizes VDA President Hildegard Müller: “To reach the target of one million charging points, 2,000 new charging points would have to be built per week. However, only around 300 are being built.” The lack of charging infrastructure is cited by nearly 64 percent of potential e-car users as the main reservation against buying an electric vehicle, the VDA president said.
NFC Optimizes Payment Options
Complicated payment solutions are critical, according to Nissan’s survey. Stress-free driving is what makes electromobility so appealing to the majority of consumers.
One possible solution: the rollout of the universal payment system cVEND box+ from began in March 2021 in the charging stations of the provider Wirelane. The integration of the system allows payment with the most common NFC-enabled credit and debit cards as well as payment systems such as Google, Samsung or Apple Pay.
The time-consuming process of registering and obtaining a charging card from individual charging station providers is eliminated. The German government’s 300-million-euro “charging infrastructure on-site” funding program envisages mandatory integration of NFC payment options via credit or debit card from 2023.
RFID Charging Cards: New Security Standards from VDE and NXP
As early as 2017, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) drew attention to potential security concerns and deficiencies in the advancing charging station expansion at its annual congress.
In July 2021, the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) drafted the application rule “VDE-AR-E-2532-100,” which was developed in collaboration with . This provides for the production of RFID charging cards in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 14443-4 and is intended to prevent the forgery and manipulation of charging cards as well as so-called “black charging”.
