News

Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in South Africa is growing to support the rapidly expanding new energy vehicle market. The country now has boasts 400 public charging stations, with further expansion planned for 2025.

Rubicon wanted to find a way to make payments at its charging stations more user-friendly to pave the way for growth in the electric transport sector.

The Challenge

Previously, EV charging stations in South Africa used a closed-loop system, meaning that customers needed to set up pre-funded wallets and use special cards to charge their vehicle. This created a series of extra steps in the charging and payment process, and limited interoperability across different charging stations. There was a need for a more efficient, seamless payment process without requiring physical computers at each charging station due to concerns like theft, power management, and maintenance.

The solution

To address this challenge, Rubicon collaborated with EFT Corporation, Visa and Verifone to allow customers to use major credit cards on Rubicon charging stations, without having to pre-fund wallets.

Through the integration of EFTCorp’s payment platform with Verifone’s UX700 class-leading unattended payment device, customers can now use major credit cards on Rubicon charging stations, without having to pre-fund wallets. Additionally, terminals can now be controlled remotely using cloud-based technology.

Here's how it works:

Plug in: The user connects their car to a Rubicon charging station.

Pre-authorisation: Once plugged in, the Verifone UX700 payment device at the station prompts for payment. The system then reserves a predefined amount on the user’s credit card before the charging starts.

Charging: Once the pre-authorisation is approved, the charging process begins.

Payment: If the user stops charging early, the final payment reflects only the electricity used, and the remaining reserved funds are released. If the charging process continues beyond the initial reservation, the system incrementally increases the reservation amount, adding funds to the initial pre-authorisation as needed, and the final amount is settled when the car is unplugged.

To ensure the success of this project, the payment terminals had to be controlled remotely without local computers for the first time. Verifone deployed its functionality to support remote cloud-based terminal control, and introducing incremental estimated authorisation and reducing pre-authorisation hold times necessitated specific customisations with our banking partner. And all these various systems, including Rubicon, Verifone payment devices, and EFTCorp’s integrated technology stack and switches, had to be synchronised.

This groundbreaking solution, with the proof-of-concept phase already launched at several sites in Johannesburg and Cape Town, will allow customers to pay with major credit cards at Rubicon charging stations for the first time.

The results

With over 60% of transactions in South Africa now contactless, open-loop solutions allow drivers to charge their electric vehicles at any public charging station without needing an account or membership, creating a seamless payment experience. Enabling contactless payments at all public charging stations is an important step in making EV ownership more accessible.

The implementation of incremental pre-authorisation for dynamic, consumption-based billing is a first for South Africa. It’s a great example of how collaboration can lead to significant innovation, with complex technologies being integrated to deliver a streamlined and user-friendly experience for customers.

Though it required complex operational changes, the result is the opposite for the end-user: A considerably simplified experience. It’s a unique solution for the EV charging sector and an important step for sustainability in South Africa, because the easier it is to access and use EV charging solutions, the better the adoption of electric vehicles will be.