Does AFIR require you to install a card reader?

AFIR is Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. It replaces the earlier AFID directive, and because it is a regulation rather than a directive, it applies directly in every Member State without needing transposition into national law. That leaves less room for local interpretation than the previous rules.

Its operational obligations — payment, pricing, data — fall on whoever operates the charge point, regardless of size. If you have a point open to the public, it affects you.

This is the most common misunderstanding. AFIR doesn't look at who owns the charge point, but at who can access it: what matters is whether access is open to any user, with or without prior registration.

A private company with a car park open to customers or visitors is publicly accessible and is covered. A public authority with chargers reserved for its own official fleet has restricted access and is not covered at that point. A company with chargers only for its employees isn't covered either. The right question isn't whether you're public or private, but whether anyone can use that charger, even occasionally.

It depends on the power output and the installation date. Below 50 kW there's no obligation to add a physical reader. At 50 kW or more, for publicly accessible points installed before April 2024, yes: a card reader or contactless payment must be added before 1 January 2027.

The upgrade to ISO 15118-20 is only mandatory if the point is newly installed or substantially renewed. There's no retroactive obligation for equipment that is kept without being renewed.

Below 50 kW, yes: connected alternatives such as a QR code with a secure payment gateway are accepted. From 50 kW upward, no. The Regulation requires a physical bank card reader or a device that accepts contactless payment, whether or not the app exists.

The app remains a convenient and recommended channel, but it doesn't replace the legal requirement at those power levels.

No. Plug & Charge, enabled by ISO 15118, is a communication and authentication standard between vehicle and charger that lets charging start without a card or an app, through a prior contract with a mobility service provider. AFIR regulates it in a section separate from the guaranteed means of payment.

The card reader is the universal method that must always exist from 50 kW upward, to cover any user: someone without a Plug & Charge contract with that operator, and someone driving a vehicle that doesn't support it. These are independent, complementary requirements, not interchangeable ones.

The price must be expressed per kWh of electricity supplied, not only by time or by session, at new points of 50 kW or more. It must be reasonable, easily comparable, transparent and non-discriminatory.

An occupancy fee per minute is allowed to discourage a point being blocked, but it must be communicated before the session starts. And no prior contract or registration can be required to find out about or pay for a one-off charging session.

Yes, and at no cost to the user. Static data — location, number of connectors, opening hours, maximum power — and dynamic data — whether it's free or occupied, session price, whether the electricity is 100% renewable — usually through the national data access points.

A European Commission implementing regulation from 2025 standardizes the format and accessibility. In practice, this favors management systems compatible with OCPP and open protocols such as OCPI, together with third-party aggregators and apps.

AFIR applies directly, but each Member State develops its own enforcement and inspection regime. In Spain, the consequences of non-compliance depend on the applicable national rules and the competent authorities. They can include requirements to remedy the situation and, where applicable, administrative penalties.

Besides the regulatory risk — administrative penalties and remediation requirements — there are two consequences people tend to forget: the reputational one, because a user who can't pay by card leaves a negative review, and the financial one, from being excluded from funding that requires compliance with the rules in force.

Indirectly, but significantly. Programs such as MOVES III, the PERTE VEC, or European funds for charging infrastructure typically require compliance with applicable regulations, including AFIR where relevant, as an eligibility condition.

Non-compliance can mean losing a grant already awarded, having to repay it, or being excluded from future calls.

If access is genuinely restricted and not open to the general public, most of the operational obligations — payment, price transparency, open data — don't apply to you directly.

Even so, you may want to comply voluntarily: it improves the user experience and keeps the installation ready in case the use of the space changes at some point.

Yes. Etecnic doesn't manufacture charging hardware: we develop and operate EVcharge, the management platform, and we offer our own complementary hardware such as the payment kiosk.

With chargers from another manufacturer, EVcharge can integrate as a direct management backend via OCPP if the charger supports it, or interconnect via OCPI with whichever backend already manages that point. And the kiosk can be added as a centralized payment terminal regardless of the charger's brand.

Not necessarily. The EVcharge kiosk is compatible with chargers from different manufacturers and can centralize payment for several charge points in a single terminal, instead of fitting a reader to every charger.

Besides meeting the requirement for one-off payment with no prior contract, it lowers the upfront investment and maintenance compared with equipping each point separately.

Responsibility as operator of the charge point under AFIR falls on whoever operates the point. Etecnic acts as the technology provider that supplies the tools to comply: backend, connectivity, payment terminal and open data via the sector's standard protocols (OCPP and OCPI).

Compliance with the vehicle communication standards, the ISO 15118 family, depends mainly on the charger hardware and its manufacturer.

No. The AFIR Regulation doesn't measure the 50 kW threshold by what the charger delivers at any given moment, but by the maximum power it is capable of providing. The legal text itself defines it this way in Article 2: the theoretical maximum power that the charge point can provide, not whatever it is configured to today.

A limit set by software, reversible from the management panel, doesn't change the physical capacity of the equipment: for AFIR purposes, the charger still counts by what it can deliver, not by what it is currently allowed to deliver. As of today, there is no specific Spanish regulation that recognizes this kind of limitation as a valid way to be exempt from the requirement.

If the charger also received a grant (MOVES, PERTE or other European funds) precisely for having 50 kW or more of power, limiting it afterward to get around AFIR may conflict with the conditions of that grant.

It depends on how many points need to be covered, where they are, and whether payment is centralized in a kiosk or resolved point by point. We'd rather give you a figure based on your actual installation than a catalog price that won't hold up later.

On timing, one thing is worth keeping in mind: a kiosk has to be manufactured, supplied, installed and tested. If the goal is to reach 1 January 2027 with the installation up and running, our recommendation is not to leave the decision later than the end of October 2026.