Independent specialist = independent advice

A quick Google search quickly reveals the multitude of options on the market: there are different brands of charge points, installers, platforms and so on. That means it can be quite a challenge to find your way around the densely overgrown e-jungle.

Fortunately, specialist suppliers can help you to choose the charging solutions that best suit your company. Your number of employees, budget, corporate culture and sustainable mobility objectives all play a role in your choice.

However, some of these suppliers are tied to specific charge point brands or energy companies. As a result, they only offer solutions from their own portfolio. And if you're unlucky, there could be a catch. You might be saddled with strict contract conditions or additional costs for several years, for example, and have no freedom to make new choices later.

Want to play it safe? If so, opt for brand- and energy-independent suppliers that have not concluded exclusive deals. That way, you can always be sure of honest advice tailored to your needs.

Heard of a CPI, CPO or MSP?

In order to switch to electric business mobility, you need services from three different types of suppliers: a CPI, CPO and MSP. Who are they? What do they do? What drives them?

CPI: Charge Point Integrator

A Charge Point Integrator will ‘integrate’ the charging infrastructure at your company premises and your employees’ homes. Simply put, this is the installer of your charge points. However, this e-mobility specialist actually does much more than that.

A CPI often employs consultants who are not only familiar with the technical specifications of the dozens of different brands of charge points, but can also link them with the specific needs and wishes of your company. They know better than anyone else what to look out for when buying charge points.

After a thorough analysis of aspects such as your power capacity, available space, budget and transition plan, the consultants will seek out the most suitable charging solutions.

After that, the integration really starts. Trained technicians will prepare the installation site, provide the right hardware, install the charge points, connect them to the electricity grid and configure the settings. Afterwards, they will be ready to maintain your charge points and help you quickly if anything goes wrong.

CPO: Charge Point Operator

A Charge Point Operator will manage your charge points after installation. This includes charging sessions by your employees (at home and at work) and external users, automatic settlement , statistics and reports: in short, all the administration that is involved in looking after a fleet of electric vehicles.

A CPO will generally offer 24/7 support for this, in combination with a digital management platform. This way, all the users of your charging infrastructure can always get help quickly and can easily consult useful information from any device. You don’t need to worry about anything.

Not even your energy consumption. This is because some suppliers also link the management platform with smart software that allows you to keep track of your energy consumption.

Energy management, in other words. By adjusting the charging capacity of your charge points to the available energy in your building, you can significantly reduce costs and avoid overloading the electricity grid.

MSP: e-Mobility Service Provider

In order to make the transition to EVs as easy as possible, it’s best to also contact an e-Mobility Service Provider. An MSP will provide charge cards that allow your employees to charge at public charge points on the road. Just like a fuel card, but for electric vehicles.

Please note: you can only use your charge card at the charge points of administrators (CPOs) with whom the MSP has concluded an agreement. That makes it a good idea to choose an MSP with a large network , allowing your employees to recharge any time, anywhere. It gets even easier if the MSP’s app also shows real-time information about all the charge points nearby, together with the charging rates.

A charge card usually includes a subscription for managing the mobility budget. This involves a fixed monthly amount tailored to the number of electric drivers in your company. The result: no more administrative chaos, but just one monthly invoice. Handy!

Do you always need three suppliers?

Although you can choose a different supplier for each of these services, it requires quite a bit of organisational talent to coordinate these three partners with each other and your company.

Some specialists cover the full e-mobility landscape: they are all-in-one partners who serve as your Charge Point Integrator, Charge Point Operator and e-Mobility Service Provider. MobilityPlus is one of them.

With our integrated approach, we help you to quickly choose, manage and make available the most suitable charging solutions for employees and visitors at home, at work and on the road. This makes charging cheaper and, above all, a lot easier.