Credit score Card Funds Now Accepted At Rubicon EV Charging Stations – A First In South Africa

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Final Up to date on: 2nd April 2025, 07:20 pm

The South African electrical mobility area is beginning to present indicators of great traction in a number of areas. Gross sales of battery-electric automobiles (BEV) breached the 1,000 models per yr mark in South Africa for the primary time ever in 2024. Final yr, 1,257 BEVs had been bought in South Africa, up 35% from 929 models bought in 2023. Within the general market, 515,712 automobiles had been bought in South Africa in 2024. Which means BEVs solely had a market share of 0.24%. That’s nonetheless very low! With solely 3,212 BEVs bought since 2018, its clear to see that gross sales of BEVs have been gradual in South Africa in comparison with related auto markets world wide. On the plugin-hybrid electrical automobile (PHEV) facet of issues, 737 PHEVs had been bought in 2024, up 100% from 368 models bought in 2023. Nonetheless, PHEVs solely made up 0.14% of complete automobile gross sales in South Africa in 2024. Let’s take a look on the high promoting PHEVs in South Africa.

Though these are small figures in contrast with related markets world wide, it exhibits the market has some promise. One solution to encourage and speed up adoption of electrical automobiles is to have good publicly out there charging infrastructure within the main facilities in addition to on in style freeway routes. This can go a great distance in easing one of many important considerations potential EV patrons typically have, and that’s vary nervousness! Having ample charging infrastructure is an effective begin, however there are additionally different essential pillars to this together with, good community uptime, and general reliability of the chargers making up this charging community. Nice buyer expertise is due to this fact essential, together with when paying for charging periods.  For this reason Rubicon has added a brand new possibility for patrons to make funds in a person pleasant method utilizing probably the most generally used bank cards.

South Africa now has over 400 public charging stations together with ultrafast chargers, with additional growth deliberate for 2025. With electrical automobile charging infrastructure in South Africa rising at a great tempo to assist the increasing new power automobile market, this new cost possibility supplied by Rubicon and companions has come on the proper time.

Right here is the background to this new improvement: Rubicon needed to discover a solution to make funds at its charging stations extra user-friendly to pave the way in which for development within the electrical transport sector. Rubicon says that beforehand, EV charging stations in South Africa used a closed-loop system, which means that prospects wanted to arrange pre-funded wallets and use particular playing cards to cost their automobile. This created a sequence of additional steps within the charging and cost course of, and restricted interoperability throughout totally different charging stations. There was a necessity for a extra environment friendly, seamless cost course of with out requiring bodily computer systems at every charging station as a consequence of considerations like theft, energy administration, and upkeep.

With a view to deal with this problem, Rubicon collaborated with EFT Company, Visa, and Verifone to permit prospects to make use of main bank cards at Rubicon charging stations, with out having to pre-fund wallets. Rubicon says that via the mixing of EFTCorp’s cost platform with Verifone’s UX700 class-leading unattended cost gadget, prospects can now use main bank cards at Rubicon charging stations, with out having to pre-fund wallets. Moreover, terminals can now be managed remotely utilizing cloud-based know-how.

Right here’s the way it works:

Plug in: The person connects their automobile to a Rubicon charging station.

Pre-authorization: As soon as plugged in, the Verifone UX700 cost gadget on the station prompts for cost. The system then reserves a predefined quantity on the person’s bank card earlier than the charging begins.

Charging: As soon as the pre-authorization is authorised, the charging course of begins.

Cost: If the person stops charging early, the ultimate cost displays solely the electrical energy used, and the remaining reserved funds are launched. If the charging course of continues past the preliminary reservation, the system incrementally will increase the reservation quantity, including funds to the preliminary pre-authorization as wanted, and the ultimate quantity is settled when the automobile is unplugged.

To make sure the success of this undertaking, the cost terminals needed to be managed remotely with out native computer systems for the primary time. Rubicon provides that Verifone deployed its performance to assist distant cloud-based terminal management, and introducing incremental estimated authorization and lowering pre-authorization maintain occasions necessitated particular customizations with the banking associate. And all these varied techniques, together with Rubicon, Verifone cost units, and EFTCorp’s built-in know-how stack and switches, needed to be synchronized.

This ground-breaking answer, with the proof-of-concept section already launched at a number of websites in Johannesburg and Cape City, will enable prospects to pay with main bank cards at Rubicon charging stations for the primary time.

Buyer expertise is every little thing! Subsequently, with over 60% of transactions in South Africa now contactless, open-loop options enable drivers to cost their electrical automobiles at any public charging station with no need an account or membership, making a seamless cost expertise. Enabling contactless funds in any respect public charging stations is a crucial step in making EV possession extra accessible. That is essential. We have now coated points round this earlier than in different markets, the place on the time EV drivers typically needed to battle with numerous totally different apps, charging setups, and cost strategies on a single street journey.

Rubicon says that the implementation of incremental pre-authorization for dynamic consumption-based billing is a primary for South Africa. It’s an ideal instance of how collaboration can result in important innovation, with advanced applied sciences being built-in to ship a streamlined and user-friendly expertise for patrons. Although it required advanced operational modifications, the result’s the other for the end-user — a significantly simplified expertise. It’s a singular answer for the EV charging sector and an essential step for sustainability in South Africa, as a result of the better it’s to entry and use EV charging options, the higher the adoption of electrical automobiles might be.

It’s nice to see that South Africa’s electrical automobile charging community is rising and cost choices aimed toward bettering buyer expertise are being added. This can enable drivers to have a extra seamless driving expertise across the nation. Here’s a video of 1 such drive, even with an EV with a comparatively small battery, all enabled by a few of these chargers from Rubicon and companions.

Picture courtesy of Rubicon