Historically, charging networks were “closed groups” of infrastructure, meaning that eMSP role was fulfilled by CPOs, and as such drivers needed a subscription to any charging network they wanted access to. This led to every EV driver needing to juggle many different charge cards, pay many different invoices, and resulted in an overall poor user experience.

The term “Roaming” in e-Mobility describes the ability of an eMSP to provide access to their drivers to charge on the network of (usually many) different CPOs, so that in principle a driver only needs a relationship with a single provider to meet all of their charging needs.

An AGREEMENT in place between the CPO and eMSP outlining terms of the transactions

A COMMUNICATION channel to pass information back and forth so the charger knows that a given charge card is allowed to start a session