AFIR Data & Price Transparency 2026: What DATEX II Means for RFID and Roaming

The first wave of Europe's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) coverage was dominated by hardware: contactless card terminals, ad-hoc payment, and the ISO 15118 mandates that reshaped charging authentication. But 2026 brought a second, quieter wave of obligations that is just as consequential — and that gets far less attention. As of April 14, 2026, AFIR's data and price-transparency requirements are in force, and they change what charge point operators must publish, how drivers compare prices, and how roaming and RFID billing have to behave. This is the part of AFIR that is about information, not iron.

The DATEX II Mandate, in Plain Terms

From April 14, 2026, operators of publicly accessible charging points must make a defined set of data available in a standardized, machine-readable format — DATEX II — and route it to national access points and central platforms so it can flow to maps, apps, and route planners across Europe.

Two kinds of data are covered. Static data describes the site that does not change minute to minute: the charge point's location, connector types, maximum power, and operator identity. Dynamic data is the live status: whether a connector is available, occupied, or out of service, and, critically, the price. The goal is straightforward from the driver's seat — open any app and see not just where the chargers are, but which ones are free right now and what they will cost before plugging in.

For an industry where "drive to a charger and hope" was a real planning strategy, standardized, shareable availability and pricing data is a structural upgrade. It also raises the bar for operators: data that used to live only inside one operator's app now has to be exposed cleanly to everyone.

Price Transparency: The End of the Surprise Bill

AFIR's price-transparency rules attack one of EV charging's most persistent frustrations: not knowing what a session will cost until the receipt arrives. For ad-hoc charging — paying on the spot without a contract — the price per kWh (or per relevant unit) must be clear and available before the session starts. The driver must be able to make an informed choice up front, not reverse-engineer it afterward.

This matters enormously for the credential and roaming side of the business, because contract-based charging — the world of RFID cards and eMSP accounts — works differently. A driver tapping a roaming RFID card is billed under their provider's pre-negotiated tariff, which can differ from the charger's ad-hoc price. AFIR's transparency push makes the gap between ad-hoc and contract pricing visible, which sharpens the value proposition of a well-run RFID program: predictable, consolidated, contract-rate billing is a feature drivers can now actually see and compare against the alternative.

Why RFID and Roaming Get More Important, Not Less

It is tempting to read every AFIR transparency rule as a nudge toward app-based, ad-hoc, contactless-card payment — and away from RFID. The reality is the opposite for the use cases RFID serves best. Transparency rules make the public, casual-charging experience better, but they do not replace the need for managed authentication in fleet, workplace, and contracted-driver contexts.

A fleet operator does not want each driver paying ad-hoc prices on a personal card and submitting expense claims; it wants every session authenticated to a managed credential, billed at a negotiated rate, and consolidated into one invoice with a clean audit trail. AFIR's data rules actually strengthen that model: with standardized availability and pricing data flowing across networks, an eMSP can route drivers more intelligently and reconcile sessions against published prices, while the RFID card remains the simple, reliable way to tie each session to the right account. Roaming platforms that exchange this data — the same infrastructure that lets one card authenticate across many networks — become more valuable as the data they carry becomes richer and more standardized.

The 2027 Horizon: ISO 15118-20 and Bidirectional Charging

AFIR's timeline does not stop at 2026. The next major milestone is January 1, 2027, when the more advanced ISO 15118-20 standard becomes mandatory for new or substantially refurbished publicly accessible charge points. Where the earlier ISO 15118-2 enabled certificate-based Plug and Charge, the -20 revision adds richer communication and, significantly, support for bidirectional power transfer — the foundation for vehicle-to-grid services in which a parked EV can feed energy back to the grid.

For operators and eMSPs, the practical takeaway is to treat 2026's data and transparency work and 2027's protocol upgrade as one continuous roadmap rather than separate scrambles. Authentication strategy, billing systems, and data publishing all have to coexist across a fleet of chargers that will span several hardware generations for years to come. A layered approach — Plug and Charge for compatible vehicles, contactless payment for ad-hoc public access, and RFID cards for fleet and contracted users — remains the resilient answer, now with transparent, standardized data flowing underneath all of it.

What Operators Should Do Now

The 2026 transparency rules reward operators who treat data as a first-class deliverable. Publish static and dynamic data — including price — in DATEX II to the relevant national access point, and treat the feed as production infrastructure, not a compliance afterthought. Make ad-hoc pricing genuinely clear before a session begins. And keep the contract-based RFID and roaming experience sharp, because transparent pricing makes the predictability of a managed credential easier for fleet and business customers to value.

AFIR's first chapter was about letting anyone pay at any charger. Its 2026 chapter is about letting everyone see what is available and what it costs. For RFID and roaming — the tools of managed, contract-based charging — that visibility is not a threat. It is the backdrop that makes a well-run credential program stand out.

Need RFID cards and roaming-ready authentication that fit the post-AFIR landscape? Contact our team to align your credential and billing strategy, browse our EV charging cards, or explore fleet and roaming solutions built for OCPP and OCPI.