Mastercard, Virta & Worldpay team on card payments for EV charging station

By Gloria Methri

Virta and Mastercard have announced the launch of the new Virta Payment Kiosk solution, enabling safety and reliability for unmanned outdoor card payments for EV charging in Europe. In collaboration with Worldpay from FIS, the new solution brings seamless card-based payments to existing and new charging stations in the region.

“The lack of coherent and easy-to-use payment options at charging points has long been a pain point for electric vehicle drivers. We are therefore happy to partner with Virta and Worldpay to set new payment standards across the EV charging landscape and contribute to making mobility more sustainable,” said Erik Gutwasser, Divisional President of Nordics & Baltics at Mastercard.

The new Virta Payment Kiosk also makes card payments financially viable for charging point operators. The reduced cost and fast implementation time are due to Virta Payment Kiosk’s ability to handle multiple individual chargers at the same charging site and the possibility to retrofit existing AC and DC charging sites with it.

The Virta Payment Kiosk also integrates the payment terminal to Virta’s EV charging money management service and complies with current (PSD2) and expected (upcoming PSD3 and AFIR) legal and regulatory requirements.

“The Virta platform already enables one-time and post-paid card payments in the Virta app. Extending the range of payment methods to include the use of payment cards at the charging stations completes the freedom of choice and flexibility for consumers. As the global leader in card payments, Mastercard and Worldpay are perfect partners to ensure the highest quality of user experience. We expect Payment Kiosks to increase the utilization rates of charging stations, especially in high-traffic public areas attracting one-time visitors with fast and convenient charging without the need to download an app,” said Elias Pöyry, Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer of Virta.

The solution is now readily available for all charging point owners on the Powered by Virta platform. The first roll-out of the new solutions starts with Powered by Virta network partners’ charging sites in Sweden and Finland and selected key locations in Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.

The target is to enable card payments at all Powered by Virta charging sites in Europe by the end of 2025. At the moment, there are around 90,000 charging points connected to the Virta platform in 35 countries.