Stop 03 of 08 · Revenue

How does an eMSP earn money?

About 6 min · 3 questions ·

Saturday
The situation

A provider with 200,000 customers buys charging from 600 operators and sells it as one product: one app, one card, one invoice.

Its price for this charger is 0.55 EUR per kWh; the operator charges the provider less.

The questionWhere does the provider's share come from, and what does it have to pay for?

Buy, bundle, sellThe provider in the middle
BuyingFrom many operators, at roaming tariffs.
  1. Operator Atariff A
  2. Operator Btariff B
  3. Hubhundreds more
SellingTo drivers, under one contract.
  1. App and cardone access
  2. Contract priceshown before charging
  3. Invoiceone per month

The provider's margin is the difference, minus the cost of app, support, billing and roaming connections.

What drivers pay for

  • Access: one app or card for many networks.
  • Information: the price for each session, shown before charging, including costs.
  • Billing: one monthly invoice for all sessions, at home and abroad, without extra charges for cross-border roaming.
  • Subscriptions: a monthly fee for lower prices per kWh, for drivers who charge often in public.

A small difference at a large scale

In this example the difference between the provider's price and the operator's tariff is a few cents per kWh, before hub and payment fees, app, support and billing come out of it. So the provider depends on volume, on good roaming terms and on keeping its own costs low. Prices must be reasonable, transparent and non-discriminatory. Some companies are both operator and provider, which lets them earn on both sides of their own sessions.

Check your understanding

3 questions. Answer all of them to complete this stop. Each answer explains itself.

01Question 1 of 3

What does an eMSP mainly earn from?

02Question 2 of 3

What must a provider show before a session?

03Question 3 of 3

Why do providers depend on scale?

Further in other paths

  1. OCPI and roaming · Stop 01Why does a card work at someone else's charger?One card, many networks: what roaming is, which two roles meet in it, and why the exchange between them needs a common protocol.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
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