Power Supply Isn’t the Bottleneck. Your Software Stack Might Be.
Read Time:10minutes
Jul 7, 2025
Petrol retailers entering the electric-mobility market often focus on the most visible hurdle: securing enough kilowatts to run fast chargers.
Grid upgrades, switchgear, and transformer capacity are tangible projects with clear budgets and timelines. Yet field experience shows that once hardware is in place the real constraint on growth is digital.
Fragmented back-office systems, closed protocols, and slow integrations delay launches and frustrate EV drivers far more than cabling ever will.
In this article, we’ll explain why software architecture is now the decisive success factor for petrol stations that want to add EV charging at scale, and how eMabler’s open-API approach removes the friction.
If you want to read more on how petrol retailers can succeed in EV charging, don’t miss our practical guide: How Petrol Retailers Can Enter the EV Charging Market?
Why EV Charger Hardware Isn’t the Biggest Problem Anymore
Utilities, charger manufacturers, and energy-storage vendors have spent a decade perfecting solutions for limited grid capacity.
High-power cabinets ship with built-in load balancing, batteries shave peak demand, and modular designs simplify later upgrades. While infrastructure work can still take months, it follows a predictable path.
Meanwhile the service level drivers expect is climbing. In a recent independent audit of eleven UK charging networks, users complained far more about app glitches, payment errors, and charger visibility than about sheer electrical power.
The conclusion: electricity can be delivered, but delivering a seamless digital experience is harder.
What’s Slowing Down EV Charger Rollouts at Petrol Stations
Every EV charger needs to talk to multiple systems:
Point-of-sale for fuel and retail bundles
Loyalty and CRM for personalised pricing
Roaming hubs so external drivers can start a session
Energy management to optimise demand charges
Fleet and mobility wallets for consolidated invoicing
Legacy site controllers rarely expose modern APIs, and many charging station management systems (CSMS) operate as closed platforms.
The result is a patchwork of manual exports, one-off integrations, and duplicated data.
Launching even a handful of chargers can take months when every partner requires custom middleware.
How API-first EV Charging Software Speeds Up Deployments
A software stack that is modular and standards-based unlocks four strategic benefits:
Speed: RESTful APIs let developers connect new services in days instead of quarters, shortening time-to-revenue.
Interoperability: Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) and Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) support roaming and multi-vendor hardware without vendor lock-in.
Future-proofing: As payment trends evolve (for example, account-to-account or plug-and-charge), petrol retailers can enable features at the software layer without replacing chargers.
Data monetisation: Clean session data feeds loyalty, pricing, and energy-trading engines to create new revenue streams.
These benefits allow petrol retailers to move faster, integrate more easily with partners, and adapt to a changing market without costly hardware replacements. A flexible, API-first software stack is the key to staying competitive as EV charging becomes a core part of the forecourt offering.
How eMabler Helps Petrol Retailers Launch EV Charging Faster
eMabler was built for an API-first world. Key characteristics include:
Headless architecture: The core handles authorisation, tariffs, remote control, and reporting while exposing every function as a documented REST or WebSocket endpoint.
Hardware agnostic: Any OCPP-compliant charger can be added in minutes, protecting existing investments.
Seamless ERP and POS bridging: Standard connectors synchronise fuel, shop, and EV transactions so petrol retailers keep a single customer view.
Developer self-service: Swagger documentation and SDKs mean third-party teams can extend services without middleware bottlenecks.
Together these features break the tight link between EV charger software and onsite hardware, giving network planners the freedom to move quickly and adapt.
Action Plan for Petrol Retailers
Petrol retailers planning to expand into EV charging can avoid delays and unlock new revenue by building the right software foundation from the start.
The following steps outline how to build a flexible, scalable, and efficient foundation that supports long-term growth.
Audit existing digital landscape: List every system that must exchange data with chargers.
Prioritise open protocols: Require OCPP 1.6/2.0.1 and OCPI from hardware and roaming partners.
Adopt an API-centric CSMS: Choose a platform that exposes full functionality through documented endpoints.
Prototype integrations early: Connect loyalty, payments, and energy management in a test environment before the first charger ships.
Measure and iterate: Track session success rate, average payment time, and driver satisfaction to guide continuous improvement.
Implementing these steps turns EV charger software into a competitive advantage rather than a risk.
Conclusion
Grid upgrades still play a role, but the bigger challenge for petrol retailers expanding their EV charging services often lies in the software.
When the digital foundation is open and flexible, petrol stations can move faster, connect the dots across their retail systems, and roll out charging services that are built to last.
Want to make EV charging a seamless part of your business? Get in touch with the eMabler team to explore how our open-API platform can help!
