When charging an EV becomes hard work, Cariqa clears a path

Behind every public charging session is a tangle of systems that rarely work together, leaving drivers to stitch the experience together themselves.

Cariqa started with a simple question: what if the industry cleaned up the part users touch first?

If you’ve ever tried charging an EV in a busy city, you know the drill. You spot a charger on one app, check the price on another, then scramble to find the right one to actually start the session. By the time everything loads and you’ve logged in for the third time, you’re wondering why topping up feels harder than filling up a tank of fuel.

In the summer of 2022, electrification was clearly accelerating. Manufacturers were rolling out new EV models, sales were climbing and the shift toward mass adoption was unmistakable.

At the same time, Tidjani had begun driving an EV himself. Living in Berlin without a home charger meant relying entirely on public charging. With two small kids in the backseat, circling the block for a working, affordable charger just wasn’t sustainable.

As Tidjani describes it, he suddenly saw a problem he understood and realized he could actually do something about it.

The collaboration also marks a significant milestone for Cariqa’s founding team. Cariqa co-founders Issam Tidjani, Stefano Bonetta and Tamara Ciullo first met while working at HERE Technologies. Tidjani likes to say the company started with “a mix of serendipity, timing and lived experience.”

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The core of Cariqa

Cariqa is a platform that weaves together everything that makes charging feel disjointed, such as pricing, payments and billing into one coherent system built specifically for EV networks. Instead of pushing operators through layers of third-party resellers, Cariqa creates a way for companies to connect directly with the drivers using their chargers.

“We believe operators should define their pricing and control their payment flows,” Tidjani said. That clarity, he explained, is essential for building trust. Drivers get straightforward pricing and predictable payments. Operators get something just as important: control over their revenue and relationships. As Tidjani put it, operators don’t just need visibility, they need ownership. Without it, consistency is nearly impossible.

A tough market

Each charger represents a business working hard to stay viable. Charge point operators (CPOs) are managing heavy infrastructure costs, volatile energy prices and constant pressure to expand. Many turn to third‑party platforms to reach more drivers, but the trade-offs are steep: higher fees, less transparency and thinner margins.

With Cariqa, operators can surface their chargers in busy digital environments without sacrificing ownership of pricing or transactions. This kind of system strengthens operator economics, allowing them to reinvest in upkeep and reliability. When operators are stronger, the whole charging ecosystem becomes more dependable.

“Opening new channels shouldn’t mean giving up control,” said Tidjani.

Meeting drivers where they already are

One of Cariqa’s most powerful moves is partnering with HERE. By integrating with HERE WeGo, Cariqa embeds its pricing infrastructure directly into a navigation app drivers already trust for route planning.

“Drivers don’t want another app, another account or another interface,” Tidjani said. “They want the tools they already used to simply work better.”

Through the partnership, drivers can discover participating chargers, access direct pricing from Cariqa's partner charge CPOs and be directed to Cariqa’s web experience to pay for charging through a simple, consistent experience.

“It removes the friction at the moment of decision,” Tidjani said. When a driver can go from planning their route to paying for a charge in one continuous flow, the whole experience feels more natural. For operators, this creates a storefront right at the moment drivers are making charging choices. “It is about connecting demand with supply in the most intuitive way,” Tidjani noted.

Rewriting the EV rulebook

By untangling the messier parts of charging, giving operators the tools to run healthier businesses and partnering with companies shaping the future of mobility, Cariqa is redefining what EV charging can feel like. “We don’t just want to add chargers,” Tidjani said. “We want to rebuild the system so it works for everyone.”

Cariqa’s footprint is expanding quickly across Europe and beyond, bringing a consistent pricing and payment experience from one country to the next. Charging is no longer a local hurdle. Drivers expect the same smooth process whether they are plugging in near home or crossing borders on a vacation.

Tidjani’s vision rests on a simple idea: if drivers can trust the process from the first search to the final payment, and operators can run their networks transparently and sustainably, the entire ecosystem levels up.