Should CPOs build an app, or better experience?

Key takeaways

• Most CPOs don’t need a custom app; they need control, reliability and clarity across pricing, payments and roaming
• Building or white-labelling an app adds complexity without addressing the operational root causes
• The charging experience is shaped by infrastructure, not interfaces
• As Europe scales to 3.5 million public chargers by 2030, interoperability and simplicity will define the winners

Many charge point operators (CPOs) will eventually ask themselves the same question: Should we build our own app?

The idea is tempting, because an app feels like control. It’s a branded space where drivers engage directly with your network, you can display availability, manage payments, set pricing, gather data and (theoretically) build loyalty.

But Europe’s charging landscape is already crowded with apps, accounts and logins. Drivers aren’t struggling because there are too few apps, they’re struggling because there are too many.

So perhaps the question isn’t whether you can build an app, it’s whether you should.

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Why do operators want their own app?

The instinct is understandable, a dedicated app offers:

• Brand ownership: your colours, your interface, your experience
• Direct customer relationship: easier, direct communication
• Operational insights: usage patterns, dwell times, behaviour signals
• Potential for loyalty: subscriptions, memberships, rewards programmes

These ambitions make sense; no operator wants to feel anonymous inside someone else’s ecosystem. But the move from concept to execution is where complexity begins to surface.

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Where it gets complicated (and costly)

Developing and maintaining a consumer-facing charging app is much harder than it appears, and the cost isn’t just financial.

Constant maintenance

Operating systems update, payment regulations evolve, and standards such as AFIR and local requirements like Eichrecht demand ongoing compliance. An app must be continuously updated simply to remain legal and functional.

Integration overload

Drivers expect roaming and interoperability. Behind the scenes, this means integrating with platforms like Hubject or Gireve, plus managing hardware and back-end compatibility. Each connection adds testing, certification and support overhead.

The white-label trade-off

A white-label app is a pre-built charging app that CPOs can rebrand rather than build from scratch. These apps ease the development effort, but the underlying work stays the same. You still inherit:

• ongoing updates
• compliance requirements 
• roaming integrations
• customer support

And you still add another app to a landscape where drivers already feel overwhelmed. In most cases, a white-label app doesn’t solve the problem, it just shifts the workload somewhere else.

App fatigue

The ecosystem is already saturated with apps, and drivers are feeling serious app fatigue. In fact, a 2025 eMabler report identified hundreds of distinct EV-charging apps, forcing users to guess which app works where, and to maintain numerous accounts. In short, adding another app becomes part of the drivers problem rather than solving it.

Data and payment risk

Handling payments, authentication and GDPR-compliant storage introduces risk and operational load. For many mid-sized operators, this overhead grows faster than the value returned.

Ultimately, it’s easy for the app to become a burden; something that costs time, money and headspace without improving the driver experience.

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What drivers really care about

When you look at what frustrates drivers today, a lack of apps isn’t a concern, so what is? 

European studies from ADAC, USCALE and the FIA all highlight issues with inconsistent pricing, unclear payment flows, and mismatches between reported and real-world charger availability.

• Unclear or inconsistent pricing - over 50% of German EV drivers find current pricing at charging stations “insufficiently transparent”
• Chargers marked “available” when they’re not
• Failed sessions - 73% of drivers report having charging issues such as the process failing to start, stop, or unexpectedly terminating
• Confusing or inconsistent payment flows
• Juggling multiple apps - the FIA found that 87% of EV drivers have had to download a new app at a station just to pay

In short: drivers want reliability, clarity and fairness, not another app icon. Furthermore, with 47% of Europeans living in apartments without access to private charging, public charging isn’t a niche use case, it’s routine, making simplicity non-negotiable.

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A better way to improve the charging experience

A great charging experience doesn’t come from the app, it comes from the systems behind it. What drivers actually feel - whether the session starts first time, whether roaming works, whether the price makes sense - is determined by infrastructure, not interface.

Those things aren’t controlled by the app interface, they’re controlled by the underlying infrastructure:

• How pricing is set and updated
• How transparent the final cost is
• How payments are handled
• How roaming partners connect and communicate
• How accurate station availability data is
• How reliably your stations operate

When these foundations are solid, any app (your own or someone else’s) feels faster, clearer and more predictable.

Ultimately, improving the underlying infrastructure has far greater impact than launching a new app ever will.

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So… should you build an app?

Maybe, but it depends what problem you're trying to solve, and whether it will genuinely strengthen your strategy.

Before you start designing screens and payment flows, ask:

1. Will this app simplify or complicate the charging journey for drivers?
2. Am I building a differentiator, or duplicating what already exists?
3. Will it give me meaningful control, or just another thing to maintain?
4. Could the same goals be achieved through a smarter infrastructure layer instead?

If the real issues sit in pricing, payments, compliance, or reliability, an app won’t fix it - the infrastructure will.

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Final thoughts

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a branded presence, but building an app purely to have one rarely delivers value. And considering the EU needs an estimated 3.5 million public charging points by 2030, imagine what the market would look like if every CPO had their own app… That’s not how you fix fragmentation, it’s how you cement it.

The future has to move towards interoperability, clarity and simple, predictable charging. The real advantage now sits behind the screen, in the infrastructure that makes every session work.

So the real question isn’t whether you need an app, it’s whether you can deliver reliability and control. That’s what matters, not another app icon.

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Want to chat?

Every day we speak to operators wrestling with these difficulties: lack of pricing control or clarity, convoluted payment flows, and compliance headaches to name a few.

If 2026 is the year you want effective operations and a smoother experience for your drivers, get in touch.

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