What problem is Cariqa Connect solving?

Embedded charging already exists, so what's missing, and what does Cariqa Connect actually solve?

Embedded charging solutions are nothing new. 

OEMs, navigation apps, fleet tools, and mobility platforms (demand partners) can already enable drivers to charge and pay for sessions in their products.

So as we launch Cariqa Connect, the legitimate question is: Why introduce another solution, what's genuinely missing, and what does Cariqa Connect solve? 

Here's our answer.

A gap that was failing the industry

For years, the EV charging market has had a structural problem sitting underneath it. CPOs have built supply, with charging networks and infrastructure, while demand partners have built the products drivers use daily. But the commercial infrastructure to connect charging supply and demand directly has never existed.

The consequences run across the whole ecosystem:

• CPOs can't reach demand partners or their drivers directly. Their tariffs pass through resellers before reaching the products drivers use, arriving distorted and out of their control
• Demand partners such as navigation apps, mobility platforms and OEMs can't embed charging without accepting commercial compromise, presenting inflated reseller prices under a brand they've spent years building (check out this installment to understand why this is a major issue)
• Drivers pay marked-up reseller prices through products they trust, without understanding why the price looks the way it does

Why the gap persisted

The gap between CPOs and demand partners, (i.e the platforms drivers actually use: maps, apps, routing providers, car brands) was particularly acute for demand partners looking to embed charging into their products. 

The path of least resistance - a reseller API - was available, and the alternative was anything but straightforward. For demand partners, the options were limited to:

• Use a reseller API or white-label app and accept the commercial compromises that come with it
• Become an EMP themselves, building direct CPO relationships, obtaining licences, handling VAT and e-invoicing, and taking on the full operational burden of a charging business
• Don't embed charging and push the driver out of their product into the wild west of charging

Most chose the first. Not because reseller arrangements met their needs, but because building an EMP was simply not realistic. So reseller APIs became the default, and with them, a reseller sitting permanently between CPOs and demand partners, ensuring the gap between charging supply and demand partner capability persisted.

Until now.

What direct payments infrastructure changes

Cariqa Connect is the direct payment infrastructure that bridges the gap between CPOs and demand partners. When a demand partner integrates Cariqa Connect, the commercial structure changes:

• Direct CPO prices
  
  • The CPO sets the price, the demand partner accesses it directly, the driver pays it with no reseller markup
  • The demand partner presents a price it can stand behind because it reflects what the operator actually charges
• CPO commercial control
  
  • CPOs retain control of their own tariff, rather than watching distorted versions of it circulate across reseller channels and demand partners they can't influence
• Revenue participation
  
  • Most embedded charging solutions charge per-user or per-transaction fees
  • Cariqa Connect lets demand partners participate in charging revenue instead, turning charging from a cost line into a new revenue stream
• Operational complexity handled at infrastructure level 
  
  • Payments, settlement, VAT compliance, and network connectivity sit with Cariqa, not the demand partner

Demand partners across routing, price comparison, and navigation are already operating on this model, including Eco-Movement, A Better Routeplanner and Chargeprice.

That's why we built it

The problem Connect is solving isn't access, a route to embedded charging already existed.

It's the infrastructure that makes direct CPO connection commercially and operationally viable for demand partners that aren't EV charging companies, and don't want to become one. 

The infrastructure that gives CPOs reach without losing pricing control, gives demand partners a commercial model that pays back, and gives drivers a price they can trust.

That's what's been missing, and that's what Cariqa Connect provides.

If you're building charging into a product drivers already use and want to understand what direct connection looks like in practice, get in touch.