At Saascharge, we believe that collaboration and knowledge sharing are the keys to thriving in the fast-paced EV charging industry. Staying informed is critical with new protocols (e.g., OCPP 2.0, ISO 15118, AI energy load prediction…), market entrants, and increasingly complex billing concepts. When new market players start or migrate to a new platform—whether their own or the Saascharge platform—the industry landscape can be overwhelming. This makes continuous access to best practices and use cases essential for success.

As a specialized and independent EV charging SaaS platform, Saascharge has developed a collaborative approach with our partners. By sharing insights and strategies, we help them remain competitive in their respective segments, whether targeting the hospitality sector (e.g., hotels, restaurants), the retail industry (e.g., shopping malls, stores), real estate, or fleet management. Now, we’re taking this a step further with the launch of the Saascharge Access Portal, designed to share: a centralized platform that simplifies access to key resources and supports scalability like no other in the EV charging industry.

• Product Updates
• Latest Market News
• Training Documentation
• Sales Materials (e.g., EV charging presentations for EMPs and CPOs)
• Direct Support Access
• And more…

How Do We Support Your EV Charging Network Objectives?

The EV charging market thrives on scalability and resource optimization. Maximizing transactions per charging point is essential. To achieve this, chargers need to be highly visible, easily locatable, and competitively priced for users searching for charging facilities. Once users arrive, delivering a seamless charging experience—accessible to both registered and non-registered EV drivers—is crucial.

Achieving these objectives involves many processes. At Saascharge, we are committed to sharing these processes openly with our active customers and partners through the Access Portal.

For instance, consider a company electrifying its fleet. The process begins with defining the required capacity and understanding the charging patterns: When does charging need to occur? Next, decisions must be made about the type of charging hardware—whether AC or DC—and the necessary power load. Additionally, the organization must consider:

• Multi-purpose usage: Can the chargers also serve employees or guests?
• Pricing structures: What pricing conditions should apply to each consumer group?
• Home charging: How can home chargers for company cars be managed effectively?
• International eRoaming: Should eRoaming be enabled for cross-border transactions?
• Access methods: What types of access are most suitable—RFID and Plug & Charge for the fleet, a smartphone app for employees, or QR code-based web access for guests?

These are just a few of the detailed, step-by-step analyses we support as part of our consultative approach.

“Sharing is winning. We believe that using platform functions alone isn’t enough. Setting up the right charging solution with the most competitive pricing tailored to your company’s needs can be a game changer—especially when applied with a strategic approach. That’s what we aim to support through our sessions and guides.”
– Richard Albrecht, Saascharge CEO

Let’s work together to make EV charging in 2025 the best experience possible. Contact us today to learn more or access the portal!

All customers providing commercial EV charging services utilize a platform known as the back office. This platform serves as the central hub for operating charging stations, handling tasks such as support, authorization, billing, and energy management. The majority of market players opt for one of three approaches: developing a proprietary platform in-house, purchasing an existing platform from the market, or utilizing a Software as a Service (SAAS) platform. Each of these approaches comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses but what is the best approach?

EV charging backend growing market requirements

The era of relying on an OCPP driver providing CDRs (charging data records), basic pricing plans with an operational console along with an app for initiating transactions, has passed. Today, a competitive EV charging backend is required to provide complex pricing mechanisms, accommodate various tiers of customers (Charging station operator, Site owner, locations…), and manage billing processes involving the integration of diverse payment gateways (e.g. Stripe, Payter, TRX, among others). Next to that, we have to integrate energy management protocols such as OSCP or OpenADR, assimilate different eRoaming protocols (such as OICP, OCPI) and hubs (e.g. Hubject, Gireve), and ultimately merge all of this seamlessly into a company’s operational environment (e.g. ERP integration). This requires knowledge and a state-of-the-art EV platform.

EV charging backend market models

1. House-made development: This entails the necessity of recruiting or establishing a comprehensive IT and product team to fabricate a competitively viable platform.
2. Purchasing an existing market solution: These pre-constructed solutions are retailed by companies specializing in commercial EV Charging backends, often offering room for certain customizations.
3. SAAS solution: This involves acquiring a fully prepared and hosted market-ready backend and application through a licensed arrangement, typically based on charging points with system integrations facilitated by APIs.

Make, buy, or lease an EV charging software? Let’s compare!

Here is a short estimated comparison for 1’000 to 10’000 charging points with development costs that includes all charges for a complete charging service setup: (Analysis, Development, testing, White labeling, configuration…). The yearly management costs include hosting (server), service support, and market adaptations (new functionalities).

The optimal approach depends on your company’s structure, strategy, and timeline for achieving your objectives. Based on this analysis, it appears that the most suitable model would be to begin by utilizing a competitive SAAS solution until you have reached a certain number of charging stations (e.g., 10,000). At that point, it could become financially viable to develop your own platform. However, this decision goes beyond a mere ‘make or buy’ cost analysis. Establishing your own platform would necessitate assembling a comprehensive team of market experts, analysts, and developers, solely to create a standard version. This expertise is readily available with a SAAS solution, and additionally, you gain the flexibility to customize your platform by integrating key systems (e.g. ERP for invoicing, ticketing system, CRM…) with APIs.

What if you could customize and adapt your model progressively?

It’s evident that every emerging EV charging business undergoes a learning curve. By commencing with a SAAS solution, you can create an attractive product, pricing, and distribution model, and subsequently refine the approach on a step-by-step basis by integrating key applications. This is possible through a modular and evolutive platform such as Saascharge with its API catalog.

At Saascharge, we have noticed that around 30% of customers (including CPOs or EMPs) tend to start by gradually integrating essential business applications. Then, they explore the possibility of developing more significant Smartphone Apps or other user-facing applications.

The benefit to invest and develop in what truly matters

The foundation of a great EV charging solution lies in delivering reliable and cost-attractive charging services. There are core service elements that you can hardly differentiate from other EV charging software. It’s all about specifics! For example, integrating with an external Energy Management System (EMS) for load management or linking with an ERP to automate invoicing for fleets, rather than relying on standard ‘credit cards’ payments. This holds greater significance than attempting to replicate existing features. You can also build specialized business applications for hotels, Fleets, Real estate management or Retailers…

Start Your EV Charging Journey with a Competitive SAAS Model and Evolve through Selective API System Integration

Despite weighing the pros and cons of various models, a backend inherently offers a range of shared functionalities. Initiating your journey today using a competitive SAAS model with API integration is a pragmatic approach to adapt your model as you grow (e.g. more EV Drivers, charging points…). This is an opportunity to create a unique EV charging product built upon your proprietary applications! Make or buy an EV charging platform? Don’t compromise, let’s get the best of both!

Partnership empowers US EV charging providers to offer more flexible payment options

Baltimore/New York/Atlanta (May 24, 2023) – Transaction Services (TRX), a leading payment processor, has teamed up with Saascharge, a leading provider of software and application services for EV charging companies in North America, to create a powerful billing solution for the rapidly growing EV charging market.

Through this partnership, EV charging networks will have more flexibility to offer various payment methods and fee models to different charging station types and locations. This partnership and platform will enable networks to offer more attractive rates to their commercial customers, company fleets, and private users.

The first customer under this partnership is ESD Global, a New York-based charging company.  TRX will handle the payment processing of all charging sessions, providing a special rate focused on residential users.

Scott Martin, CEO of Transaction Services, remarked, “Our partnerships strategy is to find best-in-class teams that offer powerful solutions while also being world-class in their approach to customer service and support.  We are thrilled to partner with Saascharge, as together we will deliver greater flexibility in payment options with an unwavering commitment to serve our mutual customers.”

Richard Albrecht, CEO and Co-Founder of Saascharge, said: “We are excited to partner with TRX in bringing a unique approach to billing services for the EV charging industry. By tailoring pricing models to specific market needs, we can help our customers reduce costs and improve user experience. This is a win-win for everyone involved.”

The partnership between Saascharge and TRX reflects the growing demand for innovative and cost-effective solutions in the EV charging market. As more companies enter the market and more drivers switch to electric vehicles, efficient billing services will become increasingly important to ensure the growth and sustainability of the industry.

About TRX

Transaction Services is a leading provider in payments with many decades of experience serving our customers from their headquarters in Atlanta and offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The core platform is engineered to be technologically efficient and equally secure in handling all aspects of the payments cycle, while also delivering quick insights into transaction activity via their reporting dashboard and other tools.

About Saascharge

Saascharge’s scalable, open platform enables e-mobility providers to profitably operate and control their own EV charging networks for the first time. By leveraging e-roaming, ensuring broad, intra-network charging, coupled with a novel, geo-advertising application, Saascharge not only enables the most profitable network economics but also the best driver engagement and charging experience available. Saascharge is based in the US and has operations in nine countries on three continents.

Saascharge is part of 10 Selected startups that are employing subscription or recurring revenue models to fight climate change

Washington, D.C., (August 2, 2022) – Village Capital, with support and grant funding from leading cloud-based subscription management platform provider Zuora®, announced that 10 startups were selected to take part in Sustainability Subscribed, an accelerator program for startups creating solutions to fight climate change and preserve the world through subscription models.

The open call had a focus on startups employing recurring revenue models, such as subscriptions and moving the needle towards greater sustainability and net zero emissions.

More than 50 entrepreneurs from 16 states applied to be a part of the accelerator. The final cohort is composed of the top 10 companies, 40% of the cohort is headquartered outside of US tech hubs (NY, CA, MA), 40% have a BIPOC member of the founding team or C-Suite and 70% have a female member of the founding team or C-Suite. These companies are creating solutions around greenhouse gas emissions, access to clean energy, resilience, and sustainability of food and water systems, circular economy and sustainability, and climate change.

Here are the 10 startups working to employ subscription or recurring revenue models to fight climate change in the US:

• Akeptus (Mars, PA) is making smart technology more accessible by making a low-cost solution that helps homeowners of all income levels cut their energy use.
• Ampliphi (Atlanta, GA) is a data-driven sustainability-as-a-service platform that helps brands and retailers amplify a circular economy.
• Benchmark Labs (San Diego, CA) offers asset-specific environmental forecasts to high-value asset managers to increase opportunity costs and operating margins.
• FloVision Solutions (South Bend, IN) reduces food waste in cafeterias, fast food, and quick service restaurants through computer vision and machine learning.
• Haystack Ag (Boston, MA) provides cost-effective and high-accuracy soil carbon verification solutions for landowners and carbon markets.
• IncentiFind (Houston, TX) is the nation’s go-to database of green building incentives,  they are transforming US real estate to become sustainable through $70 billion in incentives.
• Saascharge (New York, NY) enables anyone to enter the electric vehicle charging market thanks to an open, scalable, and interconnected platform.
• Scope Zero (San Francisco, CA) is building a platform to facilitate a new employee benefit called a carbon savings account, which reduces employees’ CO2 footprints and boosts corporate sustainability goals.
• Sortile (New York, NY) provides AI-driven solutions that make textile waste valuable by enabling fiber-to-fiber recycling.
• Voltpost (New York, NY) is retrofitting lamp posts into smart electric vehicle charging stations to decarbonize mobility and democratize charging access.

From August to November 2022, selected startups will participate in three online workshops and one in-person workshop on improving investment-readiness. Each company will have the opportunity to work closely with industry experts, investors, and ecosystem partners to develop the networks they need to scale their impact. The top two peer-selected companies will receive USD $50,000 each in grant funding.

All startups in the program will be invited to join Abaca, Village Capital’s global online network that helps entrepreneurs analyze and structure their businesses for investment. The network also matches them with the right investors and resources.

For more information, reach out to Sofía Cándano at Village Capital (sofia.candano@vilcap.com)

About Village Capital

Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has invested in more than 110 program graduates.

About Zuora, Inc.

Zuora provides the leading cloud-based subscription management platform that functions as a system of record for subscription businesses across all industries. Powering the Subscription Economy®, the Zuora platform was architected specifically for dynamic, recurring subscription business models, and acts as an intelligent subscription management hub that automates and orchestrates the entire quote to cash and revenue recognition process. Zuora serves more than 1,000 companies around the world, including Box, Ford, Penske Media Corporation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Xplornet, and Zoom. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also operates offices around the world in the U.S., EMEA and APAC. To learn more about the Zuora platform, please visit www.zuora.com.

We are excited to announce that Tomasz Kasprzycki has joined Saascharge as Senior Full Stack Developer part of the Management Team!

Saascharge is growing with new customers, products and innovations! The role of Tomasz is therefore key to strengthen the EV charging platform to support our growth and ambitious product roadmap!

Tomasz previously worked in the financial sector developing complex applications for the management of investment funds and accounting solutions for important market players such as Brown Brothers Harriman and HSBC. Tomasz holds a Master at the AGH University of Science and Technology of Kraków, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics & Computer Science.

We believe that Tomasz has the perfect background to enhance our eRoaming financial clearing solution, extend our pricing and payment capabilities. The work has already started, we are looking forward to engage with our customers and develop the EV charging market together!

Saascharge is proud to announce the arrival of Peter Hamilton as Advisory Board Member with a focus on supporting our market development in the energy sector!

​Proud to join the Saascharge team as an advisor!  I started working on the electrification of transportation 25 years ago when I co-founded a team of five engineers to build a series hybrid electric vehicle for our senior design project.  Since then I’ve worked across the clean energy space, developing hybrid bus and truck drivetrains and exploring business models for light, medium and heavy-duty EVSE and Vehicle to Grid integration.  I look forward to driving the Saascharge vision: simplifying electric vehicle charging through their open, scalable & interconnected platform.  

Pete founded the consulting firm Better Energies LLC in 2012 to evaluate and uncover high-value business opportunities for clients in the clean energy space by focusing at the intersection of technology, policy, and the marketplace. 

Prior to founding Better Energies, he was Managing Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy.  Pete has worked as a venture capitalist, engineer and consultant in over a dozen countries. His clients and employers have included Eurus Energy, Toyota Tsusho, CPower, Centrica, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Sharp Electronics, NantEnergy, Sunverge, EnerNOC, NRG Energy, Solar Turbines (a Caterpillar company), Lockheed Martin, as well as various boutique investment funds, startups, and non-profits.

Pete holds degrees from Swarthmore College (BS, Engineering), UC Davis (MS, Energy Policy), and Cornell University (MBA).

2019 was probably the most promising year for the electric vehicle sector with EV sales growth of more than 50% and many exciting announcements for 2020. Especially from established car-makers such as Ford with the usage of the iconic Mustang brand and VW with the ID3. EVs are starting to get a major role. Electric vehicle charging stations are also growing massively with national roll-out plans, but the reality is that we aren’t there yet! Not enough electric vehicle charging points and low interconnection of EV charging networks makes travelling for EV drivers challenging!

As a market actor, it is our duty to bring solutions to the industry. So, what should we wish for 2020?

1. More market players

There are many sectors which have the interest to offer EV charging services. Utilities which distribute electricity and OEM’s which produce and sell electric cars. Finally, all retail companies with parking spaces since it takes a while to charge EVs:

• Restaurant chains to attract travellers to enjoy refreshments while charging
• Retailers to keep drivers busy while charging
• Gaz stations at rest areas offering fast chargers to cope with the surge of EVs

The good news is that the EV charging sector will also become more dynamic thanks to “Plug & charge”. This standard manages EV charging authorization and billing by simply plugging EVs to chargers. This will obviously improve the charging experience for EV drivers. Unfortunately, offering charging services isn’t financially viable yet. This is due to low charging frequencies but especially to expensive service models for site owners. We believe that the market shouldn’t be managed by a handful of market players and that everyone should be able to propose charging services without intermediaries. Thankfully this is possible with an EV platform approach.

2. Mass electrification of parking

Every Parking shall be equipped with 5% to 10% of EV charging equipments. The 1 or 2 chargers per parking era is gone! You must think big with a proper electrification strategy. Especially, considering the latest EV forecast of Loren/McDonald’s with 3% sales in 2020 and 17% in 2028. It is also still the right time to be considered as a first mover. Let’s remember how it was in the 2000’s with WiFi in coffee shops. We all knew that Starbucks had a reliable internet connection. Wouldn’t you like to be recognized as THE place to charge an electric car?

3. Interconnection of American EV charging networks

Any EV driver should be able to charge anywhere with one subscription service! What is normal with a debit card on any ATMs in the world shall be possible with EV chargers too. eRoaming solutions along with open interoperability protocols such as OCPI to interconnect multiple charging networks do exist. Nevertheless, despite multiple announcements of major networks, it is still not possible to drive across the US with one subscription. Interconnecting networks is not only about technical protocols but also about pricing and invoicing agreements across service providers. Thankfully these services do exist.

How can we support the EV Charging market

We believe that any companies shall be able to develop their own EV Charging service, manage their revenues and benefit from this market opportunity. That’s why we have developed a set of Whitelabel applications to create, operate and commercialize an EV charging network. Partners have simply to select a charging station, mandate an electrician for the installation and offer services for EV drivers. No investments in system development required the licence platform approach allows partners to grow without risks. The solution ensures to be fully inter-operable with eRoaming, enabling any drivers to charge anywhere.

This approach works, we have started to commercialize our EV charging platform end of last year and we are proud to roll out our first clients now.

More to come this year with demand response and dynamic pricing solution. Let’s develop the market together! I wish you all a successful and electrified year 2020.

Richard

Saascharge is pleased to announce the addition of Ryan Adelman to our advisory board with a focus on supporting our entry to the North American market.

Ryan is a commercial leader with over 15-years of experience building businesses in the distributed energy, transportation, and energy data services markets. Ryan is focused on the intersection of electric transport, smart buildings, and the electricity grid – working with companies positioned to capitalize on this dramatic and complex market transformation. As well, Ryan works with companies serving Commercial and Industrial customers with energy data analytics and IOT-enabled applications like predictive maintenance, connected consumer, smart warehouse, and smart transportation.

Recently as an Executive Sales Director for Centrica Business Solutions, Ryan helped build a multi-hundred-million-dollar distributed energy services business in North America including solutions across the energy spectrum (solar, energy storage, CHP, VPP, DR, wholesale energy trading, and energy analytics). Ryan also worked with several, early-stage energy technology companies helping commercialize IP, scale operations, build partnerships, and raise capital. Ryan held business development and corporate strategy roles with Siemens Mobility and Building Technologies businesses in North America.