EV roaming maturity: What it means for CPOs

The EV roaming market has matured, offering both opportunities and complexities to charge point operators (CPOs). As a CPO, you can set up roaming yourself, use external hubs to partially outsource roaming services or contract managed roaming providers. Managed roaming offers many benefits, such as less administrative work in financial clearing (i.e. invoicing, CDR reconciliation, payments) and contract management, and a faster time to market.

When was the last time you thought about roaming? If you're a CPO, maybe you thought about it this morning, when checking the status of all your eMSP payments.

Administrative burdens hit CPOs harder than most realise. Think about managing multiple roaming relationships, resolving disputes, conducting contract negotiations, handling CDR reconciliation and taking care of other repetitive tasks. And that burden continues to rise every year.

Five years ago, EV roaming was mainly about establishing connections. Today, it's a different story. The market has matured, and with that maturity comes a new reality. Opening your network to roaming drivers brings the utilisation gains you need, but it also brings financial complexity you might not have anticipated.

The industry is already responding to this shift. CPOs are no longer asking, "How do I get connected?" Instead, they're asking, "How do I get paid, reliably and on time, and without drowning in admin work?" We also see that more CPOs focus on risk mitigation, demanding financial stability of the eMobility Service Providers (eMSPs) they work with.

'40% of European businesses spend more than 10 hours a week chasing late payments.' (IB Intelligence)

Roaming is moving beyond its early-adopter years, maturing into a more complex market. For charge point operators, this evolution brings both opportunity and complexity. So, the question is: should you all do it yourself, or would managed roaming be a better option? Let’s find out.

Roaming complexity is about to scale

By the end of 2025, the number of EVs on European roads is projected to increase by another 3 million to a total of 14 million. Europe's public charging network reached over 1 million public charge points in 2025, and transaction volumes continue to rise. Moreover, Europe’s public charging infrastructure is expected to increase by more than 320% in the next decade.

What does this mean for the operational challenges you already face as a CPO? They compound. More roaming relationships. More monthly reconciliations. More disputes. More working capital tied up in payment delays.

The utilisation opportunity is significant: roaming opens your charge points to dozens of eMSPs and millions of tokens. But scale brings operational challenges that feel manageable today, yet will become overwhelming at scale.

What are the five hidden complexities of EV roaming?

The benefits of roaming are clear. However, beyond the borders of your roaming El Dorado—with huge EV driver potential—lies a valley with hidden complexities. Let’s discuss the five most common and impactful ones.

1. Payment unpredictability

EMSPs often have different payment behaviours that can amplify the pressure on your finance team. Some pay reliably on agreed terms. Others are consistently late. Some require repeated follow-up.

This unpredictability makes cash flow planning difficult, creating real operational constraints for CPOs.

2. Technical challenges

Connecting to a roaming network can pose different kinds of technical challenges. Think about misaligning protocol versions, locations that are not properly published or under the wrong Operator ID, faulty CDRs, connectivity issues, and many more.

3. Administrative burden

Monthly reconciliation with dozens of different eMSP partners. Spreadsheets. Email threads about discrepancies. Invoice generation and tracking. Payment matching. CDR reconciliation.

For most CPOs, this work falls on a small finance or operations team, often just one or two people who are already stretched thin. The many administrative tasks can put that team even more under pressure.

4. Dispute resolution

With an increase in transaction volumes, different data formats, and varied pricing models, more and more CDRs are being disputed. Each dispute requires investigation, documentation, and negotiation—with some even resulting in lost revenue.

5. Default risk

The EV charging industry is still a volatile market. Many market players have entered and left the industry due to consolidation or bankruptcies. When an eMSP goes under, you can lose one to three months of revenue. Most CPOs are unaware of this until it happens to them.

We see that this complexity often catches charge point operators off guard. These aren't theoretical problems. These are monthly operational realities.

Managing the complexity: building vs. outsourcing

Given these complexities, CPOs face a fundamental decision: manage roaming operations in-house or outsource them to specialists. The market has evolved into a position where three distinct approaches have surfaced, each with different trade-offs in cost, control, and operational burden.

Option 1: Build your own roaming network

You can choose to manage your own roaming partner agreements, handling all the complexity internally. The do-it-yourself approach—also called self-managed roaming—means negotiating individual contracts with each eMSP, building and maintaining your own OCPI connections, handling all financial clearing, and managing disputes directly.

What this requires:

• Dedicated roaming team (typically a couple of managers for mid- to large CPOs).
• Finance staff for billing and reconciliation.
• Legal resources for contract negotiation.
• Technical team for integration maintenance.
• Support team for dispute resolution.

The investment is significant: tens of thousands of euros annually in salaries alone, plus the opportunity cost of management attention. The timeline matters too. Establishing bilateral connections can take months per partner, especially for newer CPOs without existing volume to prioritise their integrations.

What we're seeing in the market, however, is that more CPOs are looking to offload this complexity to an external partner.

Option 2: Partially outsource roaming operations to a hub

In this case, you are connecting to traditional roaming hubs (Hubject, Gireve, e-clearing.net) that offer faster access to established networks. Instead of dozens of bilateral agreements, you maintain connections to a few hubs that link you to multiple eMSPs.

What the hub provides:

• Technical connectivity infrastructure.
• Protocol translation.
• Access to hub members.

What you still handle yourself:

• Contract agreements/negotiations with eMSPs.
• Dispute resolution.
• Financial clearing.
• Invoicing and payment collection.
• VAT compliance across jurisdictions.

However, hubs have also noticed the growing CPO need for outsourcing financial operations. Recognising this shift, they now offer financial clearing services as an add-on for an additional fee.

Option 3: Managed roaming through CPMS providers

Some CPMS providers offer fully managed roaming by handling the complete end-to-end operation. Instead of building an in-house roaming team, you work with a provider who manages technical connectivity, contract negotiation, financial clearing, dispute resolution, VAT compliance, and payment security.

What this means in practice:

• No in-house roaming team needed.
• No monthly reconciliation with multiple eMSPs.
• No contract negotiations or legal administration.
• No dispute resolution processes.
• No VAT complexity to manage.
• Payment security: you get paid even if an eMSP defaults.
• Time to market: weeks instead of months or years.

The trade-off is that you will have less direct control over individual eMSP relationships and pricing structures.

The benefit, however, is that you can focus your resources on building and operating excellent charging infrastructure whilst specialists handle roaming complexity at scale.

Managed roaming for the win

The market is moving decisively towards managed roaming services. Traditional hubs are expanding beyond connectivity to offer financial clearing. And CPMS providers are building even more comprehensive roaming operations.

The red thread is clear. CPOs increasingly recognise that managing roaming complexity in-house diverts resources from their core business—deploying and operating charging infrastructure that delivers excellent driver experiences.

The GreenFlux fully managed roaming solution

Most people already know us for our extensive CPMS platform and groundbreaking work in smart charging. However, what many don't realise is that we've been operating a fully managed roaming service for a decade now.

At GreenFlux, we see that CPOs need three layers working together:

• Technical integration.
• Contractual framework.
• Financial settlement.

When all three are managed end-to-end, your operational burden will disappear. Let’s see how that works in practice.

Technical integration

We handle all the OCPI integrations, protocol translations, and technical maintenance. This also involves setting up secure communication between the CPO’s back end and the roaming platform, including authentication, authorisation, and error handling flows.

With our established roaming network, you won’t need to build or maintain dozens of bilateral integrations.

Contractual framework

We negotiate roaming agreements on your behalf, handling all the legal frameworks, amendments, and ongoing contract administration. Our collective scale and established relationships mean better terms than most individual CPOs can achieve on their own.

Financial settlement

This is where the value becomes even more apparent. We manage CDR validation, reconciliation, dispute resolution, and invoicing. CPOs receive a single consolidated payment on a predictable schedule.

As a debt-free company with strong financial backing, GreenFlux is able to offer predictable and reliable payments. This means that even if an eMSP defaults, the CPO still gets paid. We also handle cross-border VAT complexity for multi-country operators, taking that entire headache off the table.

What this means in practice:

• Instead of reconciling with dozens of eMSP partners each month, you receive one payment from GreenFlux.
• Instead of chasing late payments or resolving disputes, we take care of it.
• Instead of worrying about whether an eMSP will pay, you have payment security. So, the payment always arrives on the agreed schedule, offering you predictability and reliability.

The result: as a CPO, you can focus on operating your charging infrastructure. We focus on making sure that you get paid, on time, every time, with zero administrative burden.

Our roaming network’s scale

Currently supporting 150,000+ charge points through our platform, our managed roaming network connects:

• CPOs to 100+ eMSPs and 20 million tokens across Europe.
• eMSPs to 540+ CPOs and over 1.2 million charge points across Europe.

We also manage 260+ peer-to-peer OCPI connections in addition to connections with all major roaming hubs.

Charge point operators using our solution report that payment predictability and administrative relief allow them to focus resources on growth rather than back-office operations.

The managed roaming pricing reality

The surge of managed roaming has an impact on pricing, unfortunately. When roaming started, the focus was on building the networks and ‘just making it work’—combating range anxiety and proving the EV case. Over time, roaming has grown significantly, adding to the level of complexity.

The simple and flat connectivity fees from before have evolved into more granular, volume- and value-based models over the last few years. At the same time, there’s increased focus on pricing transparency due to driver pressure and legislation like AFIR.

The services involved—contract negotiation, technical infrastructure, CDR validation and reconciliation, dispute resolution, VAT compliance, payment predictability—all require significant resources and expertise. And that all requires investments.

For years, we provided this complete service at no additional cost. As the market matured and the service complexity grew, we reached a point where sustainable pricing became necessary.

We weren't alone in this realisation. As managed roaming has evolved from a technical service to a comprehensive financial operation, sustainable pricing has become industry standard.

Traditional hubs charge per-session fees for connectivity, with additional charges for their financial clearing services. CPMS providers offering managed roaming use various pricing models—some per-transaction, others recurring service fees, and some opt for hybrid approaches.

Our roaming pricing explained

At GreenFlux, we've adopted a per-kWh fee model based on actual energy consumption.

This fee is not charged to our CPO or eMSP customers who use our CPMS platform. Instead, it's charged to external eMSPs connecting to our infrastructure and benefiting from the network we've built and maintain. Because the fee is recorded directly in the CDR alongside the energy delivery, eMSPs can easily and transparently pass this cost through to drivers.

This pricing is accepted across our network of 100+ eMSPs, ensuring a CPO's chargers remain competitive and accessible to roaming drivers.
What makes this sustainable is what it covers: not just connectivity, not just financial clearing, but the complete end-to-end service. Contract negotiation. Technical integration and maintenance. CDR reconciliation. Dispute resolution. VAT compliance across multiple jurisdictions. And very importantly: reliable and predictable payments.

'Our pricing is accepted across our network of 100+ eMSPs, ensuring a CPO's chargers remain competitive and accessible to roaming drivers.'

To put this into perspective, an in-house roaming team typically consists of three roaming managers for mid- to large-sized CPOs, plus additional staff for CDR validation, financial clearing, and administrative tasks.

GreenFlux has a team of eight roaming managers, supported by specialists in financial operations, technical integration, support, and compliance.

Building this capability internally typically costs CPOs tens of thousands of euros annually in salaries alone, not counting the opportunity cost of management attention and the working capital tied up in payment delays.

Our pricing model is transparent and sustainable. More importantly, it ensures we can continue delivering the operational excellence and payment predictability that our CPOs depend on.

Why roaming maturity matters now

The EV charging market is making big steps towards mass adoption. Annual EV sales will reach roughly 40 million by 2030 across the world, requiring an equally impressive rise in charging infrastructure. The EU forecasts Europe needs 3.5 million charge points by 2030, which also means the industry must deploy over 2 million additional chargers within the next five years.

Transaction volumes will continue to grow. Financial stakes are rising, too. So, the operational approaches that worked when the market was smaller and simpler don't scale to where we're heading.

The strategic case for roaming

Now that ad-hoc payments at charge points are becoming more available, will they replace roaming?

We don't think so. Both will co-exist, and CPOs will benefit from offering both. It's your best shot at driving up both your utilisation and your profitability. Ad-hoc payment serves casual users, but roaming opens your network to fleet operations and drivers across established eMSP networks—representing significant charging volume that relies on centralised billing.

For CPOs, roaming isn't mandatory—it's strategic. It maximises utilisation by providing access to millions of tokens across Europe.

'The question, then, isn't whether to offer roaming, but how to manage its operational complexity.'

CPOs face an important choice: build internal roaming operations, which is expensive, slow, and diverts focus? Or, outsource roaming to specialists who can do it better and cheaper? The industry trend is clear. More CPOs are choosing managed roaming because it makes strategic sense.

Choosing the right roaming partner

At GreenFlux, we've been in this space since the early days. We are debt-free and have built our business on sustainable operations, not aggressive growth funded by investor capital.

This matters, for example, for offering payment security. We've deliberately invested in automated processes and operational discipline to ensure our payment predictability scales at a similar pace as transaction volumes. Unlike providers racing to capture market share, we've prioritised building infrastructure that can sustain these commitments over decades, not just quarters.

We're not dependent on investor funding cycles. We're here to grow with our customers as the market scales and be a reliable partner, still in business five, ten, or fifteen years from now.

The value proposition is straightforward: connect once, reach 100+ eMSPs, 540+ CPOs and 20 million tokens, get paid predictably and reliably, with zero administrative burden. Focus your team on what matters most—building, operating and expanding excellent charging infrastructure—while we handle the rest.

Want to learn more about how GreenFlux's managed roaming can transform your operations? Get in touch with our team!