Cariqa × enercity: Unlocking ad-hoc charging revenue with Cariqa Go

The challenge

Ad-hoc charging is an essential sales channel for charge point operators, representing an opportunity to capture additional demand from drivers who arrive at a charge point without prior planning or without using a proprietary app.

In practice, implementing ad-hoc charging at scale is complex from both the driver and operator perspective. For drivers, payment flows must be simple and trustworthy in a time-critical context. For operators, QR-based solutions often introduce technical dependencies and offer limited flexibility in how pricing structures, fees, and tariffs can be configured across a network.

In 2024, enercity supported ad-hoc charging through a legacy QR-based solution. While functional, the solution provided limited flexibility in areas such as pricing configuration, fee structures, payment methods, and station-level control. This constrained enercity’s ability to manage ad-hoc charging in line with its broader commercial and operational requirements, including granular tariff design, connector-level pricing, and direct settlement with drivers.

The solution

In 2025, enercity introduced Cariqa Go, Cariqa’s QR-based ad-hoc charging solution across its public charging network.

The decision was driven by the need for a backend-agnostic solution that would provide greater flexibility and control over ad-hoc charging, including:

• Configurable pricing models (energy-based, time-based, session fees, blocking fees and caps)
• Station and power-level tariff configuration
• Support for multiple payment methods
• Direct settlement, with payments flowing from the driver directly to enercity
• Clear enercity branding throughout the charging and billing journey, including at the charge point and on the invoice

Alongside enabling this flexibility, enercity used the rollout to evaluate Cariqa Go’s performance compared to the legacy QR solution, with a focus on capturing additional ad-hoc charging demand, measured as energy sold and charging revenue.

To ensure a meaningful assessment, performance was evaluated on a like-for-like, year-on-year basis:

• Comparing the legacy QR solution used in Q4 2024 with Cariqa Go deployed in Q4 2025
• Assessing the same calendar period to account for seasonality
• Normalising results to account for continued network expansion

This approach enabled a direct comparison of ad-hoc QR charging performance over time.

The results

Between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, enercity expanded its public charging network, increasing the number of charging points by 27%. Results were normalised to a constant network size to isolate observed performance changes from infrastructure growth.

On this like-for-like basis, Cariqa Go showed higher observed performance than the previous QR solution over the same period:

• Charging revenue: 2.6x
• Energy sold: 2.45x

These figures reflect observed, year-on-year performance in the ad-hoc QR channel, adjusted for network expansion.

Key learnings

QR-based charging is a commercially significant access channel

When deployed consistently across a network, QR-based ad-hoc charging can contribute a meaningful share of revenue and energy sold.

Operator flexibility matters for ad-hoc performance

Granular control over tariffs, fees, and payment options enables operators to manage ad-hoc charging in line with commercial objectives.

Markus Dehn, Head of Electromobility at enercity said: "Ad-hoc charging is an important channel for us. We opted for a backend-agnostic solution that allows for granular tariff configuration, supports multiple payment methods and ensures direct settlement from drivers at enercity charging stations, all while maintaining our brand presence throughout the charging and billing journey, including on the invoice. The results of this case study confirm the commercial importance of QR-based ad-hoc charging."

Want to find out more about Cariqa Go?

Cariqa Go is Cariqa’s QR-based ad-hoc charging solution, designed to give charge point operators greater flexibility and control over walk-up charging without adding backend complexity.

Key capabilities include:

Fast rollout
Existing QR codes can be retained and updated with a new destination, allowing Cariqa Go to be rolled out without hardware changes.

CPMS-agnostic deployment
Cariqa Go operates independently of the CPMS in use, making it suitable for operators managing multiple backend systems in parallel.

Fast, familiar checkout
Drivers can start charging in seconds using widely adopted payment methods. Payment details can be securely stored to simplify repeat charging.

Clear operator branding
The charging and checkout experience is presented in the CPO’s branding, ensuring drivers always know who they are charging with.