September 2026: Financing Innovation Reshapes EV Charging

September's news skews toward how charging gets financed, built and regulated rather than where new chargers open. EZO's €150 million non-recourse debt facility and Tesla's planned automaker-led freight-charging rollout illustrate different routes to sector expansion, while Nordic and Dutch consolidation, Portugal's regulatory transition and Italy's PNRR rollout highlight competing approaches to platform, payment and market structure. Grid-responsive pricing in a Dutch municipal tender and battery-backed megawatt charging at IAA continue to argue for smarter grid management over additional raw capacity.

Multi-Regional / Europe-Wide

Freight Charging Gets an Automaker-Led Rival in Tesla

Tesla plans to deploy more than 100 megawatt-capable charging stalls at 21 sites across Germany, France, the UK, Sweden and the Benelux, intended to support the Semi and be available to other manufacturers' trucks, with hardware deliveries starting in mid-2027. A Megacharger bundle of one power cabinet and two stalls is listed at €163,000. The move adds an automaker-led rival to Milence and could increase competition among automakers for freight-corridor locations.

Fastned Joins DCS's Preferred Partner Network as It Grows to 17 Markets

Fastned has joined Digital Charging Solutions' Preferred Partner Network in Germany, alongside Ionity, Shell Recharge, Mer and Electra, as part of 28 new partner listings across 17 European markets. The tie-up gives CPOs discounted-rate visibility to customers of automaker white-label services including BMW Charging, MB.Charge Public and Volvo Public Charging, distribution a CPO can't easily build alone. DCS's wider roaming network spans 1.2 million points across 31 markets, and the curated subset is reviewed quarterly.

Megawatt Charging Moves From Pilot to Scheduled Rollout at IAA

Milence demonstrated Megawatt Charging System technology with Daimler Truck, MAN Truck & Bus, and Scania at IAA Transportation, showing electric trucks reaching 80% charge or being fully charged within the 30-45 minute window mandated for driver rest breaks. The setup paired Alpitronic's HYC1000 (1,000kW) with a Pixii battery system (1MW/2MWh) to ease grid strain. Buffering a megawatt charger with on-site storage is what makes this kind of power workable on a constrained grid connection, as we explore in our article on the Pixii collaboration. Milence now operates around 40 hubs across nine markets, targeting 70 by end-2027 with more than half MCS-capable.

Northern Europe

United Kingdom

Non-Recourse Debt Gives EZO a Route Beyond Balance-Sheet Financing

EZO reached financial close on a €150 million investment-grade, non-recourse senior debt facility to finance the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of over 3,000 chargepoints (100 MW+) across the UK and Ireland. Aberdeen Investments provided €80 million, with Standard Life anchoring the investment. EZO says revenue from the financed infrastructure will be ring-fenced to repay the debt over seven years. The deal illustrates how charging infrastructure can be financed through non-recourse, asset-linked debt rather than solely a CPO's corporate balance sheet.

Lidl GB Cuts Its Rapid Tariff as Part of a Wider Charging Investment

Lidl GB cut its rapid charging tariff from 62p to 59p/kWh for Lidl Plus users, compared with 74p/kWh through the third-party payment route, and is investing £10 million this financial year, including around 100 new rapid chargers at existing stores. Lidl has invested in charging infrastructure since 2017.

Denmark, Sweden & Norway

Nordic Consolidation Continues as Plugit Buys Its Way Into Sweden

Finnish operator Plugit marked its Swedish market entry with the official rebranding launch of its Klevshult hub on the E4 south of Jönköping, a site Plugit acquired from GreenStop earlier in 2026. The eight-point, 400kW facility sits on the freight corridor linking Scandinavia to mainland Europe. The move follows Vattenfall's acquisition of Nima Energy and the Eviny-Mer merger, and shows Nordic consolidation now playing out site by site as well as company by company. Entering a new market by acquiring and rebranding an operating site helps a CPO get to market faster than building from scratch.

Central & Western Europe

Germany

EnBW Treats a Flagship Site as a Live Testbed Before Network-Wide Rollout

EnBW deployed XCharge's new C7 hardware (up to 480kW) at two German sites: a Karlsruhe flagship (12 points, expandable to 20) and a Nettetal hub near the Dutch border, marking the first regular rollout of that charger after a year-long field test. EnBW's own fast-charging network has grown to over 9,000 points, up from 8,000 in March, with a "double-digit" number of sites getting 480kW upgrades by year-end toward a target of 20% of Germany's fast-charging points by 2030.

Netherlands

A Regional Tender Bundling Acquisition and New Build Lets CPOs Bid at Scale

TotalEnergies Public Charging and Velian won regional concessions from 43 South Holland and Zeeland municipalities (The Hague and Rotterdam tender separately), with TotalEnergies awarded 60% of the infrastructure. The deal covers acquiring and modernising roughly 1,860 existing charging stations, plus thousands of new installations, with dynamic pricing that curbs capacity during periods of high grid demand and accelerates it when capacity allows. Bundling acquisition, modernisation and new build into one regional tender lets CPOs bid at a scale individual town contracts can't match.

Velian Trades Platform Convenience for Direct Control Over Roaming and Pricing

Velian, which operates over 33,000 Dutch charge points under a DBFMO model, moved its core network onto AMPECO's platform while bringing roaming, connectivity and B2B invoicing in-house. The dedicated single-tenant setup lets Velian keep choosing its own hardware, payment processors and roaming partners rather than working within a shared platform's constraints. Owning roaming agreements directly, rather than via managed roaming, gives an operator greater control over commercial terms and driver-facing pricing, a trade-off worth weighing against the integration overhead.

Mediterranean / Southern Europe

Portugal

31 December Sets the Clock for Portugal's Move to RJME

Portugal's transition from MOBI.E to the RJME regime gives operators until 31 December 2026 to adapt licensing, commercial and technical arrangements; CPOs can now sell energy directly to drivers or work with eMSPs under standard terms. Portuguese rules require ad-hoc electronic payment, with the method depending on power rating and installation date: 50 kW+ points require a card or contactless terminal; points below may use a QR-based method. Publicly accessible CPO activity requires a DGEG licence, which is generally valid for 10 years.

Zunder's Portugal Entry Targets Trucks, Not Just Passenger Corridor Traffic

Spanish CPO Zunder opened its first Portuguese site at A8 junction 19 near Caldas da Rainha: a 12-point, 400kW CCS hub with a dedicated heavy-goods-vehicle area and a solar canopy, billed as Portugal's first ultra-fast station built for trucks. The Lisbon-Porto corridor location signals Zunder's Iberian expansion is now genuinely cross-border, not just Spain-focused. Truck-dedicated capacity at a passenger-vehicle corridor site is still rare in Portugal, so an early mover here has room to establish itself before competitors follow.

Italy

Electra Scales in Italy With 338 Ultra-Fast Points and Its First Motorway Wins

Electra installed 338 ultra-fast charging points (169 stations) across 56 sites in 11 Italian regions using roughly €7 million in PNRR funds, and won its first three Italian motorway tenders (A4, A10). The network now totals 82 ultra-fast stations. Electra also recently became an eMSP, giving its app access to roughly 800,000 charging points Europe-wide.

Looking Ahead

September's clearest signal is that capital structure is becoming a competitive variable: EZO's non-recourse project debt offers one route to scale, while Tesla's automaker-led rollout of freight charging shows how vehicle manufacturers can enter adjacent infrastructure markets directly. Grid flexibility is moving into the terms of the business too. TotalEnergies' Dutch concession writes grid-responsive pricing into a municipal contract, and Milence's battery-backed IAA setup shows that megawatt charging depends on managing the grid connection. Operators need three capabilities: access to financing beyond conventional corporate borrowing, readiness for regulatory and platform transitions, and grid-flexible site management that improves returns on installed capacity. For operators in Portugal, the readiness test arrives on 31 December.

Stay informed about the latest developments in EV charging by subscribing to The Charge Point Journal. Have updates or insights to share as a CPO? Contact us at hello@flexecharge.com.

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Sources

electrive.com – Megawatt charging network: Tesla to launch in Europe with 21 sites
thenextweb.com – Tesla's European Megacharger rollout covers 21 sites and over 100 stalls
evinfrastructurenews.com – EZO, Rightcharge secure funding to scale EV charging offerings
evinfrastructurenews.com – Lidl GB cuts its rapid EV charging tariff to 59p/kWh
mobie.pt – Legislation and Regulation (RJME, EADME, Decree-Law 93/2025 and amendments)
greenflux.com – From MOBI.E to RJME: migration implications for CPOs in Portugal
electrive.com – DCS expands preferred partner network across 17 European markets
electrive.com – EnBW opens flagship charging site with XCharge hardware
electrive.com – TotalEnergies secures concession for charging stations in Zeeland and South Holland
away.iol.pt – Portugal tem novo posto de carregamento ultrarrápido (Zunder, Caldas da Rainha)
quattroruote.it – Electra, in Italia 338 colonnine ultraveloci
globenewswire.com – Velian Partners with AMPECO to Power a New Era of EV Charging in the Netherlands
plugit.com – Finnish charging operator Plugit expands into Sweden with new heavy transport hub
electriccarsreport.com – Milence Expands 1,000 kW Megawatt Charging for Electric Trucks
electrive.com – Milence and Alpitronic announce megawatt charging partnership

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