On-station card terminals

A payment terminal at the charging station lets any driver pay with a contactless or inserted bank card, with no app, no account and no charge card. It is the most direct way to pay, and the regulated ad-hoc payment path for AFIR and the UK regulations.

How it works for the driver

Paying happens entirely at the charging station:

1. Plug in the car.
2. Tap or insert a card at the terminal. It shows the price and reserves an amount on the card.
3. The charge runs.
4. Unplug. The session ends, the final cost is taken, and a receipt is available.

The platform runs the charge as it normally would, and does not re-check the payment, because the card was authorised at the terminal. Road watches the running cost and stops the session if it reaches the reserved amount.

Two kinds of terminal

A terminal connects to the platform in one of two ways:

• Embedded in the station. The card reader is built into the charging station and talks to the platform over OCPP. Road supports a wide range of these, across hardware vendors such as Alpitronic, ABB, EVBox and Sicharge, among others.
• Standalone. A separate terminal at the bay that supports OCPI, such as Payter and Nayax, connected to the platform over the roaming interface.

Either way, a terminal is linked to a whole station or to specific connectors, and managed over the Payment Terminals API.

Who acquires the payment

Taking a card payment needs a merchant acquirer, and Road handles that, so an operator does not need its own. A terminal runs under one of two arrangements:

• Road as merchant. Road takes the card payment through one of its acquirers and reimburses the operator for the energy through platform billing. Road holds acquiring contracts with several acquirers (Elavon, Worldline, Payone and Adyen) and supports a range of terminal models across them.
• The operator as merchant. The operator brings its own acquiring, so the card funds land with it directly. Road links the terminal and exchanges the charge data, but stays out of the money and does not reimburse.

How it settles

Terminal payments are taken at the terminal and settle outside roaming and mobility-provider billing, so a terminal session is never invoiced again through another party.