Technagon on AFIR regulations – this must be considered during implementation

The Alliance for Infrastructure Regulations is aimed at making charging more convenient, especially in public or semi-public spaces. The focus is particularly on new regulations concerning payment transactions at charging stations for electric vehicles. Besides the manufacturers of the charging stations, operators and backend providers are also obliged to comply with the implementation of the AFIR regulations.

For charging station manufacturers, two demands of the AFIR are in focus – the integration of a universal payment terminal for fast-charging points starting from 50 kW, as well as the possibility of payment via dynamic QR codes at charging points with less than 50 kW charging power. Implementing these requirements is not a problem for charging station manufacturers. For example, Technagon has enabled the integration of a universal payment terminal for nearly two years. Also, displaying a dynamic QR code, which is individually generated for each charging and payment transaction, is already possible on earlier versions of the current generation of charging stations.

Attention: The new regulations extend to the backend!

Functional hardware alone is not sufficient in this case; particularly regarding QR codes, the necessary software precautions must also be taken, leading to challenges for operators and backend manufacturers. Operators and backend providers are responsible, as Manuel Pledl, CEO of Technagon GmbH, explains regarding the challenges of AFIR:

“In numerous discussions, only the manufacturers of charging technology are being held accountable. However, the AFIR topic goes far beyond that. Initially, it is crucial that the backend provider supports the transfer of data for creating dynamic QR codes. Additionally, operators need to engage with an ad-hoc payment provider early on, who must provide the landing page for payment processing.”