Challenge

EZ-Charge launched in 2020 with the goal of making charging simple for EV drivers. The company provides charging stations that are easy to install and manage, plus a user-friendly app that allows drivers to manage their charging sessions. The simplicity of using EZ-Charge has helped the company win partnerships with local authorities in the UK, such as Oxfordshire, where EZ-Charge provides 250 charging points throughout the county.

As the company grew, it encountered challenges related to payments. For example, the EZ-Charge app allowed drivers to pre-pay before their charging session. But drivers sometimes used more electricity than they’d pre-paid for—a customer might prepay £20, but use £30 worth of electricity. EZ-Charge then had the manual, time-consuming task of chasing down the additional £10 the driver owed.

In addition, the company faced another complication—it finances charging stations in two ways: One option is for a customer, such as a residential building, to finance the charging station and allow drivers to charge for free. Another option is for EZ-Charge to collect payment directly from the drivers, who pay per charge.

EZ-Charge wanted a better payment solution that reduced its manual efforts, and that was flexible enough to manage these two types of billing and payment collection with less friction.

Solution

EZ-Charge integrated chargepoint management platform VEV-IQ, a platform developed by Stripe partner VEV, to reduce operation costs, improve user experience and billing, and maintain high charger reliability with live monitoring. VEV-IQ allows EZ-Charge customers to monitor their charging session in real time and enables businesses to improve their energy use with advanced management capabilities.

Stripe was asked to address the billing and payment challenges that EZ-Charge was experiencing. VEV-IQ provided a simple integration to Stripe, which enabled EZ-Charge customers to access their charge details and manage their payment in a single app.

With Stripe Payments, EZ-Charge users can add a payment method to their accounts, so drivers paying for charging sessions can be billed directly and immediately for the exact amount owed. Stripe Payments also makes detailed customer data easily accessible to EZ-Charge, allowing the company to retry failed payments and resolve payment issues quickly and easily.

Results

Stripe and VEV have enabled EZ-Charge to easily manage payments across markets and billing models, while also delivering an easy user experience. With a flexible payments system, EZ-Charge has saved time and money by automating the tedious tasks required to track down payments and juggle different types of billing.

EZ-Charge aims to expand further into the UK with Stripe and VEV-IQ providing the infrastructure it needs to grow. EZ-Charge also plans to implement Stripe Connect, which integrates payments into a platform or marketplace, to distribute payouts to customers who have purchased a charging station and are entitled to the chargepoint’s revenue. The company expects to save significant time on the manual work involved with distributing those funds.

About Partner

VEV helps organisations deliver on their carbon reduction ambitions with an end-to-end fleet electrification solution that integrates across vehicles, charging infrastructure and power. VEV-IQ is the management platform used for real-time vehicle, energy, charger and payments monitoring. VEV is owned by Vitol, a world leader in energy, which to date has committed circa $2 billion to sustainable energy initiatives worldwide.