TNS and JET Charge are making payments easier for EV Charging customers, by providing a seamless contactless payments experience, enabling customers to simply ‘tap to activate’ their charging.
JET Charge, an Australian based company, is leading the charge of domestic electric vehicle adoption by reducing the barriers to electric vehicle (EV) charging. Providing services to the commercial and private markets, JET Charge provides a range of EV charging solutions, making it easier for people to charge their vehicle at work, in a public space or while at home.
Having worked with City of Adelaide for almost two years, JET Charge is involved with the provisioning of 46 EV Charging Stations across the city and its surrounds, enabling drivers to easily charge their car while away from home.
As the ownership of an electric vehicle becomes more accessible and people become more environmentally or cost conscious, the demand for EV Charging is increasing. The locations of the charge points around Adelaide enable people to charge their vehicles whilst shopping, out to lunch, attending an appointment or at work. This enables a higher adoption of electric vehicles as the ability to park and charge becomes easier.
Making it even easier for people to use EV Charging
The City of Adelaide was clear that it wanted universal access to the EV charging stations. This meant that on top of the option to download an app, JET Charge needed to provide a way for users to access the stations via more conventional means, such as credit or debit card.
At the time, a solution did not exist globally for open platform card payments, so JET Charge, with the support of the City of Adelaide, developed the Paymate device and platform. This allows card payments with almost any brand of charging station and can be retrofitted at any time. The addition of Paymate to the City of Adelaide’s charging stations has made it easier than ever to access convenient fueling for electric vehicles. UnattendedPayments solution integrates directly with Paymate, providing the payment card terminal and connectivity with the Gateway, allowing fast payment processing.
Zoran Bravo, Community Engagement Manager for JET Charge comments, “We want to make the EV Charging stations as easy as possible to use. ADVAM were able to help JET Charge meet these requirements. They are experienced within the parking environment and they were able to integrate with Paymate, making it easier for our customers to pay for their EV Charging”.
Tap to activate your charging
The UnattendedPayments solution delivered by ADVAM does not only just accept payments via payment card or mobile wallet, but also enables customers to simply ‘tap to activate’ their charging.
With an aim to make the process as simple as possible JET Charge and ADVAM worked together, to ensure that the process of ‘tapping’ a card or phone enabled the activation of the charge as well as the payment.
Zoran Bravo continues, “By working together with ADVAM we were able to integrate the motion of ‘tapping’ to Paymate, making activation and payment a simple process. The customer simply taps again when they want to complete their charging and payment is taken.”
To use the EV Charging station, the consumer simply selects the charging station plug number, taps via payment card or mobile wallet to activate and then taps again once they have completed charging. The second tap will switch-off the charging and take payment. This single solution makes it a lot easier for customers to use and provide JET Charge with a single integrated solution.
EV Charging growth for the future
Growth of electric vehicles and the demand for EV Charging is growing rapidly. In Australia alone, the adoption of electric vehicles is becoming more common place with more affordable manufacturers releasing models of electric vehicles. Globally, China leads the market, followed by the US and Europe. Overall, the market has seen a 60% year on year growth rate[1]. In countries such as Norway, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles hold 50% market share[2].
John Tait, Global Managing Director, Fintech Payment Solutions, TNS and ADVAM comments, “At ADVAM, we’re focused on making payments easier for our clients and their consumers. As the parking world evolves to embrace EV Charging, we are looking at different solutions to support this growing market. For JET Charge, it’s about solving their immediate problem and providing an easy to use ‘tap’ EV Charging payment system, but as the global market for EV Charging expands, we are looking at a range of options to support our parking partners”.
Although some governments are incentivising the purchase of EV vehicles as part of their environmental agendas, the global growth is being driven by an increase in consumer demand and, in turn, parking providers need to be prepared.
Zoran Bravo concludes, “As the growth of electric vehicles and EV Charging expands, there will be an increase in demand to charge in public spaces. By partnering with TNS and providing a hassle-free solution, we expect to see EV Charging in more car parks as well as on-street bays”.
