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This article was first published by electrive on 31 August 2026.
Grid congestion and the rise of renewable energy have made energy prices more volatile, which means growth can no longer come from adding more chargers alone. Instead, it depends on better utilising the infrastructure already in the ground, which requires influencing where and when drivers decide to charge. That is where the CPO and MSP partnership proves decisive.
EV charging economics are changing
Across Europe, operators have invested heavily, yet many locations still fall short of the utilisation needed for healthy margins. Grid connections, volatile energy prices and demand that clusters into expensive peak hours all weigh on the business case.
A charge point that stands idle for much of the day, then strains the grid when everyone plugs in at once, struggles to pay its way. What operators need is a way to shape that demand, and it starts with the partner closest to the driver – the MSP.
Cashback turns demand into value for operators and drivers
The MSP becomes a channel to reach drivers a CPO cannot influence on its own, shifting demand off the expensive evening peak and filling chargers that once stood idle. Deftpower's data on more than 10 million sessions shows that an average of 67% of charging demand can move to off-peak, yet most of it still does not.
CPOs like TotalEnergies, Allego, Velian and Ubitricity as well as the Dutch DSO Liander and energy company Vattenfall already work this way with Deftpower. For example, its partnership with TotalEnergies in the Netherlands shows what changes when drivers are rewarded, with first-time cashback recipients increasing their off-peak charging by 12% and consuming 61% more energy per session than the network average.
The MSP has become a demand orchestrator
MSPs were long seen as the customer-facing access and payment layer, the app, the card, the invoice and the support behind them. That role still stands, but it has evolved through innovation. They are now demand orchestrators and aggregators, the party closest to the driver able to influence where and when they charge before a session begins.
That reach is what makes incentives work at scale, whether drivers are rewarded for charging at a particular station, in off-peak hours, or for sharing their departure time so demand can shift to cheaper, grid-friendly moments. Pooled across thousands of drivers, those small decisions become flexibility an operator can rely on.
The partnership that makes charging pay off for everyone
Charging economics now depend on demand orchestration, and no operator can master it alone. By guiding drivers to charge at the right times and places, MSPs help CPOs cut energy costs at the source and fill chargers that would otherwise stand idle.
Data shows smart charging cutting energy procurement costs by around 10% on average, and lower costs let operators price more competitively, which keeps drivers coming back. The network turns a higher profit, the grid comes under less strain at peak, and drivers charge at lower cost – three gains that only come together when CPOs and MSPs work as one.
