Knowledge base > Charging infrastructure and the EV landscape

What is a Charge Point Operator (CPO)?

The EV landscape consists of many parties and due to different types of growth developments in this market, these parties are increasingly working together and overlapping. What exactly do we mean by a Charge Point Operator?

A Charge Point Operator manages multiple charge points and ensures that they can all be used continuously for EV drivers to charge their cars without any problems. In doing so, different use cases are available:

  • The CPO owns and manages the charging infrastructure itself
  • The CPO provides the connection solely on behalf of the owners of the charging infrastructure
  • The CPO offers both services at the same time

Furthermore, the CPO role can be divided into a commercial and a technical role. Commercially, a CPO takes care of the pricing of the charging infrastructure, the connection with e-Mobility Service Providers (e-MSPs) and the associated administrative services that go with it (e.g., sharing point of interest (POI) data). Technically, a CPO is responsible for maintaining their network, including diagnostics, customer support and repair (the latter is usually done with external partners). Depending on the business model, interest and capabilities of the CPO, a CPO has one of the two roles or both at the same time.