EV Charging Platform Shut Down: How to Move Your Chargers

Use this article if you:

• have a charging software provider that announced it is closing, or that cut features you depend on
• have stations that lost the app, the payments, or both, with nobody answering support
• want to know in advance whether your stations could be moved at all

A charging station does not break when the platform behind it closes. Whether it keeps delivering power depends on how it was set up: a unit allowed to start locally keeps charging, a unit that has to ask a backend for authorisation stops. Either way, the station is waiting for a new backend address.

Networks usually mix brands of station, all pointed at one backend, so one platform closing takes every brand down at once.

If your provider has already given you a date, a 30-day free trial of ELVO gives you somewhere to point a test station today.

What actually happens when a charging platform closes

The hardware survives, the access does not. Platform providers get replaced, and some go out of business, and neither event damages a single station. What the stations lose is the server they were talking to, so what they need is a new one. Everything below follows from that.

Layer	What stops when the platform goes dark	What keeps working
Station hardware	Nothing physical	Power delivery where a local start is allowed, and the station keeps trying to reach a backend
Backend control	Remote start and stop, monitoring, load management, firmware pushes, tariff changes	Nothing, once the servers are switched off
Payments	All card payments and invoicing, because the station has nothing left to authorise against	The merchant account itself, if the contract is in your name, which plugs into the new platform. If the old platform provider collected the money, you open one from scratch
Driver access	The old app, roaming, and any authorisation that needs the backend to answer	Cards on a local authorisation list stored in the station, where the model supports one

Can the backend address be changed remotely, or does someone have to drive there

Every OCPP station holds the address of the backend it connects to, usually in a configuration setting. Moving platform means getting a new address in there. There are four ways to do it. Two of them need somebody else’s cooperation, and that is what decides the cost.

• An OCPP configuration command sent to the station. Two conditions have to hold, not one. The model has to allow that setting to be changed remotely, and plenty do not. The old platform has to still be running, and its provider willing, because in normal circumstances that platform holds the only open connection to the station.
• A firmware update carrying the new settings. Requires the station manufacturer.
• A script written for that station model, deployed against the fleet by you or your installer.
• A site visit. What you connect with is again down to the model. Some are set from the manufacturer’s installer app over Bluetooth, standing next to the unit. Others need a laptop on a cable.

Two details decide where you land on OCPP 1.6. First, the standard does not fix what the network settings are called, so the key names differ per manufacturer. The common ones: the backend address appears as OcppCsmsUrl or CSMSURL, the authentication password as BasicAuthPassword or AuthorizationKey, plus SecurityProfile and CpoName. If your model uses proprietary keys instead, or has the address compiled into the firmware, the manufacturer has to be involved. Second, the configuration is sent as several separate messages, and if the connection drops halfway through, the station can end up unable to connect to any backend at all. Nothing in the protocol brings it back over the air from there, and whether the model offers its own way in is down to the manufacturer, so treat every repoint as a step that can cost a site visit.

On OCPP 2.0.1 and OCPP 2.1 the move is a named use case in the standard itself: install the new backend’s root certificate, load the new backend into a second network profile slot, set the station to try that slot first and fall back to the old one, then reset it remotely. All of those messages still travel over the old platform’s connection, so a platform that has already gone dark removes this route on any protocol version.

Q: Is a certified station guaranteed to work on a certified platform? A: Not guaranteed, but far more likely. Interoperability problems come from the station and the backend reading the standard slightly differently, and certification on both sides is what narrows that gap. Certification is public, so you can check any vendor yourself in the certified products registry.

What to do in the first week, while the old platform still answers

The old platform’s access runs out on a date somebody else picked. Seven steps, in order. The first three stop being possible the moment those servers go quiet, and if you are repointing by remote command, so does the rest. Plan the waves against that date, not your own.

1. Export your data while the old platform still answers. Do this today, before anything else. Take all of it, not just the parts you think you will need: the stations with their identifiers and their settings, the customer accounts, the drivers and their RFID token identifiers with the account each one belongs to, the tariffs, and the full charging session history with what was billed and paid against it. An open format such as CSV.
2. Get the station inventory out of the platform, model by model. Model, serial number, location, connectors, firmware version, OCPP version, and the current network settings. This is your data sitting in their system, so it belongs in the export rather than on a clipboard. A platform provider that will not hand you your own station list has already told you how the rest of the exit will go.
3. Find out whether the SIM cards came from your platform provider. Many platforms have nothing to do with the connectivity at all. If yours is one of them, the cards are already yours and this step is done. If they came with the subscription, they sit on that provider’s account, and only they can ask the mobile network provider to transfer them. If the transfer is refused, budget a site visit per station to swap the card. Stations fitted with an eSIM that supports remote SIM provisioning avoid the problem, because the network profile is changed over the air.
4. Write down what you were actually doing, feature by feature. Tariffs and how they applied, who was allowed to charge and how they were let in, roles and permissions, the reports you relied on, invoicing, and any link to another system. Whether your stations connect is only half the question. This list is the other half, and it decides whether a platform is worth moving to at all.
5. Move one station of each model to the new backend. Open an account with the new provider, repoint a single unit per model, and run a full session on it: connection, authorisation, start, stop, meter values, payment. One per model, not one in total, because the incompatibilities are per model. Walk your feature list on the same account and have each item shown to you working.
6. Repoint the rest of the fleet in waves. This is the step you can hand to your installer. Group by model and by site, confirm connection and a real session after each wave, and keep the old platform reachable until the last wave lands.
7. Archive the export, then close the old contract. Keep the session history after the switch. It is what you will need for accounting questions and driver disputes about charges taken months earlier.

What ELVO does with stations arriving from a platform that shut down

More than 700 station models are supported on ELVO, from any manufacturer, as of August 2026. Accounts open by self-service, so a station can be pointed at a real account the same day, without waiting for a sales process. There are two routes in, and which one fits is a business decision.

The standard route you open and run yourself. The enterprise route runs under your own brand and is set up together with you. What decides between them is what your operation needs, and how fast you have to be live is one of those needs rather than the whole answer. Settle it before the move is planned, because it changes the sequence. Either way, point one station of each model at ELVO first, run a real session on it, and walk your feature list against a real account before you commit the rest of the fleet. The export you took loads in bulk, so a fleet does not have to be typed in: stations, customer accounts, drivers with their token identifiers, and tariffs.

The certification is the part you can check yourself. Interoperability trouble comes from the station and the platform reading the standard differently, and certification on both sides is what reduces it. ELVO holds an Open Charge Alliance certificate, Full and Security, which covers the encrypted link between station and platform. It is downloadable, with its number and registration date, from the ELVO participant page in the OCA registry. EPBD Article 14 load management is included rather than sold as a module.

What to put in the next contract so this does not repeat

Two clauses decide what the next platform change costs: who owns the data, and who is obliged to help when you leave. Both are cheap to agree before you sign and expensive to obtain once the relationship has gone cold. A vendor who refuses both has answered your question.

• A right to export your data, in an open format, on demand and at exit, covering stations, users, tokens, tariffs, session history, and anything else of yours the platform holds.
• An obligation to cooperate with a migration, agreed upfront, so that leaving does not depend on goodwill.

Frequently asked questions

My EV charging platform is shutting down. Do my chargers stop working? The hardware does not fail. A charging station that loses its backend keeps delivering power where local start is allowed, but it stops taking card payments, stops reporting sessions, and stops responding to remote start, stop and load management. The station is waiting for a new backend address, not broken.

Can I move OCPP chargers to a different backend? Yes, if you can change the backend address stored in the station. There are four ways: an OCPP configuration command, a firmware update, a script written for that model, or a technician on site. The first two need the old platform provider or the manufacturer to help.

What if the old platform provider will not cooperate? Without cooperation from the old platform provider, the only remote access left is through the station manufacturer, if it kept a service channel. Otherwise every station needs a site visit, and the station records have to be rebuilt in the new system from whatever you managed to export before the servers went quiet.

What data should I export before the platform goes dark? The stations with their identifiers and settings, the customer accounts, the drivers and their RFID token identifiers, the tariffs, and the full charging session history with what was billed and paid. Take it in an open format such as CSV while the platform still answers, and keep the file afterwards.

Who owns the SIM card in my charging stations? It depends on who supplied them, and many charging platform providers have nothing to do with the cards at all. If yours did not, the connectivity is already yours. If the cards came with the subscription, they sit on that provider’s account, and only they can ask the mobile network provider to transfer them.

How do I stop this from happening again? Put it in the contract before you sign. Two things matter: a right to export your data in an open format, on demand and at exit, and an obligation on the platform provider to cooperate with a migration. Both are cheap to agree upfront and expensive to obtain later.

Read next

• Moving a fleet to a new platform, step by step
• OCPP backend: what it is and how to choose one
• How to check OCPP 1.6 charger compatibility before you buy
• EV charging management software: what it is and who needs it

Sources

• Open Charge Alliance, Migrating Charging Stations, white paper v1.0, November 2025
• Open Charge Alliance, certified companies registry
• Open Charge Alliance, Open Charge Point Protocol
• Open Charge Alliance, ELVO Technology participant page
• GSMA, eSIM and remote SIM provisioning

Bottom line

The deadline is not on your hardware, it is on your access. Work through the seven steps in order, starting with the three that stop being possible once the old servers go quiet.

Try ELVO free for 30 days. Public pricing, self-service signup, no setup fee. If a provider has given you a date, the fastest way to find out where you stand is to repoint one station of each model and watch it run a real session.

ELVO Team. We operate CPMS for manufacturers, distributors, installers, and operators across Europe and beyond.

Published 11 August 2026.