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May 7, 2026 — Romania's electric-vehicle charging network has left the early-adopter phase behind. A new Global Payments study shows public charging points have multiplied 21-fold in six years and the all-electric fleet has grown 13-fold. But the analysis team says the next bottleneck isn't the chargers themselves; it's paying for the charge.
The most recent data from the study, covering the period through September, puts Romania's public charging network at more than 10,000 points. The fully electric fleet has crossed 75,000 vehicles. In the first nine months of that reporting period, the country added nearly 3,000 public charging points. What stands out even more: the number of DC fast-charging connectors has expanded more than 30 times since the end of 2020 and now sits at 5,010 units, essentially matching the 5,060 AC points. Few European markets have that balance.
Romania's EV fleet is growing just as quickly. Registration data from the country's General Directorate for Driving Licences and Vehicle Registrations shows just over 7,000 new fully electric passenger cars were registered in the first eight months of the reporting period. That's roughly 50% more than a year earlier. Battery-electric cars now account for about 8% of new passenger-car sales. With 75,000 EVs and 10,000-plus chargers, Romania has about 6.7 fully electric cars for each public charging point.
The figures are part of Global Payments' "European EV Adoption & Charging Infrastructure" study, which tracks charging networks, driver experience, reliability and payment methods across the continent. The report calls Romania a fast-growing market, with public charging infrastructure up about 33% year over year. The next question, it says, is whether that infrastructure can deliver a smooth, predictable charging experience.
Payment friction is the weak link. A driver who arrives at a charger shouldn't need to download an app, create an account, or keep a dedicated RFID card handy. "People are used to pay quickly by card almost anywhere, and charging an electric vehicle should be just as simple," says Ionela Mitran, Country Manager, Global Payments Romania.
This isn't just a Romanian issue. The same study counts more than one million public charging points across Europe. The EU's fully electric passenger-car fleet had reached nearly 7.6 million by the end of 2025, and new registration data show another 1.22 million BEVs being added in the most recent half-year tracked. But driver satisfaction hasn't kept up with hardware deployment.
Evidence from Germany makes the point. A 2026 survey of German EV drivers found that 77% of respondents use charging apps, but only 17% prefer them. RFID cards are used by 70% of drivers, yet only 13% prefer them. By comparison, ad-hoc payment is preferred by 29%, and Plug & Charge/Autocharge is preferred by 40%. In short, the two most common ways to pay for EV charging are also the least preferred.
Reliability also matters. The Global Payments study analyzed more than 13 million charging sessions and found that just 84.6% of them were completed successfully. Charger equipment had a technical success rate of 94.3%, meaning 5.7% of issues came from the hardware itself. But the end-to-end success rate was far lower — and only 71% of first attempts succeeded. An "available" charger can still fail to start a session because of problems with vehicle communication, authentication, or the payment transaction.
European regulators have been trying to fix this. The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation requires publicly accessible chargers to offer ad-hoc payment, so drivers don't need a prior contract with the operator. For new charging points of 50 kW or more, that means accepting direct card or contactless payment. AFIR also says operators must show the full price, including fixed fees, before the session begins.
Global Payments sees this as the right direction. Mitran again: "For drivers, charging should be as simple and straightforward as conventional refuelling: arrive at the station, see the price, charge and pay, without additional steps or access requirements, including when using charging networks in other countries."
That's what Smart Fuel Pass, a Global Payments solution now entering Romania, tries to solve. The platform combines charger management and payment processing in one system. It's designed for charging point operators and businesses that offer EV charging at their own locations — retail sites, offices, hotels, residential buildings and dealerships. Smart Fuel Pass supports card, contactless/NFC and other payment methods, while handling tariffs, billing, settlement and infrastructure management. Operators don't need separate vendors for payments and chargers.
The platform is already used across more than 7,000 charging points in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. In Romania, it can be integrated with existing chargers, so operators can meet AFIR's payment requirements without replacing hardware. Tariffs can be fixed or based on energy consumed, and a single cloud POS terminal can manage multiple charging points at the same location.
Charging technology is also moving fast. Next-generation 800V-1,000V architectures can charge many EVs from 10% to 80% in about 7-12 minutes, bringing the stop close to a conventional gas fill-up. Wireless charging could let drivers simply park over an inductive pad, and vehicle-to-grid systems can push energy from EV batteries back into the electricity grid. The first commercial V2G offers are already live in parts of Europe.
For U.S. readers, Romania's experience offers an important preview. The U.S. has no federal rule like AFIR that forces every public charger to accept a direct card payment. Payment methods vary by network, and drivers crossing state lines often need multiple apps and accounts. As NEVI-funded projects and private investment expand U.S. charging infrastructure, operators should consider making card payments standard from the outset — retrofitting convenience later is far more expensive than building it in.
Romania's rapid expansion proves that EV charging networks can scale quickly. The Global Payments study adds a caveat: scaling hardware alone isn't enough. The charging experience — especially payment — is what will keep drivers coming back. For Romania, and for any market in the middle of an EV buildout, a simple and reliable payment experience is the real competitive advantage.
