How does a CPO earn money?
The charger at the DIY store belongs to a regional operator with 800 charge points.
Today's sessions: a third paid ad hoc, two thirds with cards and apps of other companies.
The questionWhere does the operator's revenue come from?
| Paid by | Priced as | |
|---|---|---|
| Ad hoc chargingdrivers without a contract | the driver | per kWh, maybe per minute |
| Roaming sessionsdrivers of other providers | the eMSP | the roaming tariff |
| Time feesafter charging | driver or eMSP | per minute |
| Flexibilityshifting load | grid or market | per service |
Most operators earn mainly from energy sold; the other streams add to it.
Operators grouped by the number of charge points they run. A few large operators run a large share of all charge points, alongside thousands of small ones.
Rules for the operator's price
Operators' prices must be reasonable, comparable, transparent and non-discriminatory, and may not discriminate between end users and providers, or between providers, unless the difference is proportionate and objectively justified. That shapes how an operator can price sessions against ones.
Check your understanding
3 questions. Answer all of them to complete this stop. Each answer explains itself.
Who pays the operator for a session started with another provider's card?
The provider pays the operator under the roaming agreement and bills its own customer.
What does the directory data show about Europe's operator market?
Operators range from more than 10,000 charge points to fewer than 10.
May an operator charge providers more than ad hoc users without reason?
AFIR, Article 5(3).
- Roaming Charging in another company's network with your own card or app. EV charging fundamentals, stop 03 Glossary
- Ad hoc Charging without a contract, paid directly at the charger, for example by card or QR code. EV charging fundamentals, stop 05 Glossary
- emobility.directory: Charge point operators in Europe, from national registries of 8 countries and OpenChargeMap; Switzerland, Greece, Luxembourg and Poland left out, data as of 28 Sep 2026. https://emobility.directory/. Checked 28 Sep 2026. Charging data: Bundesnetzagentur.de (CC BY 4.0); IRVE, transport.data.gouv.fr (Licence Ouverte 2.0); NDW (CC0); DGT (CC BY); Fintraffic / digitraffic.fi (CC BY 4.0); Via Lietuva (CC BY 4.0); NOBIL by Enova (CC BY 4.0); Open Charge Map contributors (CC BY 4.0), including public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0; combined and calculated by emobility.directory.
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 (AFIR), Article 5(3) and (5). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1804/oj. Checked 09 Oct 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.