Connected car services provider Parkopedia has announced a partnership with fuel payment provider CarPay-Diem which will enable in-car fuelling payments at almost 3,500 fuel stations across Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, making it the largest facilitator across Europe. A ‘single sign-on’ feature within the platform removes the need for drivers to maintain multiple apps and accounts for parking, EV charging, tolls and fuelling payment needs.
The number of fuel stations covered is predicted to rise to more than 60,000 across 18 countries over the next three years with existing partnerships alone, and as CarPay-Diem expands its reach into Poland, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland shortly.
CarPay-Diem connects drivers with fuel networks, enabling pay-at-the-pump activation and payments from user’s smartphones. Integration of CarPay-Diem into Parkopedia’s multi-domain payment platform allows drivers to complete these tasks via their vehicle’s integrated head units, as well as incorporating wider vehicle sensor data to provide a seamless and complete digital fuelling experience
The company, which has recently passed the 1.5 million transactions milestone, has won investment from corporate services provider Edenred, a leader in the fleet, mobility and corporate payment sector with more than 44 million users worldwide. Edenred also owns mobility solution and fuel card specialist, UTA, enabling a strategic partnership between CarPay-Diem and UTA, combining the digitising of both the corporate fuel card and payment industries in Europe.
How it works
When a vehicle arrives at the fuel station, the driver selects an available fuel pump number on their in-car infotainment screen. The platform activates the pump automatically, initiates the transaction and securely manages the payment from the vehicle. Once the nozzle is replaced, a transaction receipt will appear on the vehicle screen which can be sent to smartphone devices which can then be uploaded to company expense systems, as well as relaying information regarding any loyalty points earned.
CarPay-Diem also works with fuel retailers to pass along personalised offers ahead of, or during the transaction, with the potential to save drivers money on their refuelling or purchases at the station - delivering a heightened level of connected service to drivers and simplifying management for automakers and service providers.
Parkopedia’s existing payment solution is currently in use by millions of drivers and organizations such as Audi, Apple, BMW, Ford, Garmin, GM, Hyundai Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Sygic, TomTom, Toyota, Volkswagen, and others. Its platform helps drivers find and pay for parking, EV charging, fuelling and tolls in 15,000 cities across 89 countries and the company is also developing highly detailed parking maps and corresponding algorithms to help drivers and self-driving vehicles navigate to an open parking space indoors.
Future developments
Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia (pictured above), commented: “We are delighted to welcome CarPay-Diem’s essential pay-at-the-pump fuelling services into our rapidly growing payment platform. By combining leading connected vehicle service providers into our single API, we are able to offer automakers a complete, integrated solution that presents unparalleled vehicle-centric in-car payment services for drivers. With CarPay-Diem’s impressive coverage of fuelling stations in Europe and ambitious plans
for expansion over the next three years, the partnership means we are now the largest facilitator of in-car fuelling payments in Europe, with our coverage across all domains on the payment platform growing globally, every day.”
Philippe Meyer, chief customer officer at CarPay-Diem, added: “Leveraging Parkopedia’s aggregation of vertical mobility services such as parking, tolling and charging through a unique payment experience, CarPay-Diem completes that offering thanks to our distinctive approach to serve those markets ‘differently’ than competing pay-at-the-pump solution providers and our ambition to become – together with our customers and partners – Europe’s largest and most diversified acceptance network.”
CarPay-Diem plans to facilitate digital fuelling payments at almost 10,000 locations across 10 countries by mid-2022.
Over the next three years, the 18 countries scheduled to be covered on the Parkopedia payment platform via existing fuelling partners include: Germany, UK, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with further global partnerships to be announced.
