Success story: Mer used Smart Pricing to 5.3x charging sessions in Germany and Austria

In this case study, "Mer" refers to Mer Germany and Mer Austria and specifically, the two entities whose data is presented throughout.

Introduction

For charge point operators (CPOs) looking to increase network utilisation, price is the most direct demand lever available. Mer demonstrated this in March 2026 by optimising their Smart Pricing strategy on Cariqa, driving an immediate increase in charging sessions, energy delivered, and charging revenue.

More importantly, the improvement wasn't limited to an initial spike. Higher charging activity was sustained over the following three months, demonstrating how Smart Pricing can be used not just to respond to demand, but to shape it.

It's also a clear example of why CPOs benefit from maintaining direct control over their pricing.

The approach

Cariqa’s Smart Pricing feature classifies every charger into one of five usage bands, from ‘Idle’ through to ‘Congested’. For each band, the CPO sets the discount or premium they want applied, a steeper discount for an empty charger, a premium for a busy one. Once those parameters are set, Cariqa's Smart Pricing then predicts demand in real time and automatically adjusts price within those boundaries.

Looking at charger utilisation in Austria and Germany, Mer wanted to increase utilisation of their idle chargers, so they widened the discount range for chargers in the ‘Idle’ band from –10% to –30%.

The new pricing took effect immediately across Cariqa’s demand partner network and app. Because Smart Pricing applies changes automatically, Mer didn't need to manually reprice individual charge points or rely on a reseller to pass the change onto drivers, where the price could arrive marked up, delayed, or both.

The results

To measure Smart Pricing’s impact, we looked at two separate comparisons. 

First, the two weeks immediately before and after the change, to see how quickly drivers responded. Second, weekly averages from the two months before the change (January–February) against the three months afterwards (March–May), to see whether the changes in performances were sustained. Weekly averages were used for the second comparison to ensure the comparison isn't skewed by the different lengths of the two periods.

Although this wasn't a controlled experiment, pricing was the principal operational change made during this period. Looking at both the immediate response and the sustained trend provides strong evidence that the pricing strategy was associated with a meaningful shift in charging behaviour, rather than a short-lived fluctuation.

Immediate impact

Two weeks before vs two weeks after (across Germany & Austria)

• Sessions: 3.1x
• Energy delivered: 3.2x
• Charging revenue: 2.5x

Sustained impact

Weekly averages, two months before vs three months after (across Germany & Austria)

• Sessions: 5.3x
• Energy delivered: 5.7x
• Charging revenue: 4.7x

The two-week comparison shows that drivers responded almost immediately once the new pricing went live, while the longer-term analysis demonstrates that the improvement was sustained rather than fading after an initial surge. In fact, average weekly performance continued to improve beyond the first fortnight, indicating that the pricing strategy continued attracting additional charging demand over time.

While the two markets followed slightly different trajectories, with Germany responding more quickly and Austria delivering stronger long-term gains, the overall pattern was consistent, so the combined results are presented here.

Why it matters

For a CPO, pricing strategy usually comes down to a limited choice. Either you can discount across your network as a whole and erode profitability, or you discount nowhere, leaving demand on the table. 

Mer was able to avoid that trade-off.

Rather than applying the same discount across their network, Mer could stimulate demand at underused chargers, without discounting the ones that were well utilised. For example, at one of Mer’s least-used stations, utilisation rose 4.5x from 1.9% to 8.5% between February and March once the new strategy took effect. 

This kind of strategy only works when the driver actually sees the prices, and because Mer managed pricing directly within Cariqa's infrastructure, changes reached drivers immediately, with no reseller delay or mark-up. Mer could set their strategy, see its impact within days, and maintain it as results strengthened over the following months.

These results illustrate that Smart Pricing is far more than an automation tool. When CPOs retain direct control over pricing, they can define a commercial strategy, deploy it instantly across their network, and refine it based on real-world demand. Pricing becomes a lever they can move with precision to increase utilisation, grow revenue, and make better use of existing infrastructure.

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