Acceptance: PayPal Only Means to Charge Electric Cars

• PayPal has just entered an exclusive agreement with GE Industrial Solutions enabling electric car drivers to use their PayPal account for car charging.

• GE Industrial Solutions has rolled out about 100 individual chargers, called WattStation, specially designed for electric vehicles in the US.

• Top-ups can be managed through the WattStation Connect iPhone app which locates the stations and enables payment via PayPal.

• Payments are initiated through scanning a QR-code displayed on the charger or through dialling the corresponding number manually. The user is directed to his PayPal account logon page.     

Notre analyse

• According to GE’s assessments, the amount to be paid to charge a Nissan Leaf reaches 2.30 dollars or from 10 to 20 cents kW/h on average. PayPal takes advantage of a new opportunity to grasp some more shares in the proximity payment market through betting on a promising segment (given the relentless increase of oil prices) and mostly relying on micro-payments. Also, PayPal arranged to get exclusivity on this medium: GE’s chargers will not be proposing other means of payment.

• A few months ago, PayPal entered another acceptance agreement with a filling station chain, allowing PayPal account holder to pay for fuel using a mobile app able to locate stations.