The Crossroads of Liberalization: Opportunity and Vulnerability

Portugal’s electric vehicle charging landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation. The recent overhaul, ushered in by Decree-Law 93/2025, has officially dismantled the centralized Mobi.E system. This is a necessary and welcome reform, replacing the previous regime’s inflexibility with a marketplace designed to foster innovation, competition, and consumer choice.

However, this regulatory achievement addresses only one dimension of the challenge. A critical gap remains: technical interoperability. As the transition period runs through December 2026, operators face a strategic inflection point. If not guided by a commitment to technical standards, the market risks replacing a single point of centralized inflexibility with fragmented incompatibility.

The result is the ‘Compatibility Island’ Risk—the danger that significant capital investment in charging infrastructure will be locked into proprietary silos, isolated from the broader, competitive ecosystem, effectively sinking the long-term value of the asset.

The Triple Cost of Fragmentation

For Distribution System Operators, Charging Point Operators, and Fleet Operators, the failure to prioritize open standards leads to three distinct, high-stakes business challenges:

1. The Erosion of Asset Value Through Vendor Lock-In

    The most immediate financial danger is vendor lock-in. In a fragmented market, operators often rely on a single vendor that bundles proprietary hardware and software.

    • This lack of standardized communication between the charging station and the central management system (CPMS) means the operator remains tied to the initial vendor or faces a complex, costly migration.
    • Vendor lock-in stifles competition among both hardware and software suppliers, limiting consumer choice and preventing the operator from optimizing their network with best-in-class components.
    • Crucially, for infrastructure investors, non-standard-based equipment inherently carries a lower residual value. Should the backend system or ownership change, a proprietary charging station risks becoming a costly, unadaptable relic, complicating future partnerships and growth.

    2. The Nightmare of E-Roaming Complexity

      The new legislation correctly acknowledges the importance of e-roaming, allowing users to access multiple networks through a single service provider. However, this legal mandate is not a technical guarantee.

      • In a proprietary market, a mobility service provider attempting to offer coverage across networks must negotiate and build separate, custom technical integrations with each operator.
      • This approach creates escalating complexity with every additional network, severely limiting the practical scope of roaming partnerships.
      • The system risks devolving into a complex, high-friction environment—the digital equivalent of requiring different fuel nozzles for every petrol brand—a user experience that slows mass EV adoption.

      3. Obstruction to Advanced Grid Integration

        The future of e-mobility requires charging to be a flexible grid resource, not just a load. This includes Smart Charging and Vehicle-to-Grid functionality.

        • Implementing sophisticated V2G requires complex, coordinated communication protocols between the vehicle, the charging equipment, and the utility’s control systems.
        • Proprietary systems often prioritize basic functionality over this deeper level of grid interaction, creating a fundamental roadblock for DSOs looking to manage complex distributed energy resources and for Fleet Operators seeking new revenue streams from their assets.
        • Without commitment to protocols like IEEE 2030.5, this valuable integration remains locked behind technical barriers.

        Open Standards: The Essential Complement to Reform

        Open technical standards are the missing piece required to realize the full competitive promise of Decree-Law 93/2025.

        • OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol): This provides the standardized communication layer between charging stations and central management systems. Its adoption ensures that operators can source hardware from any OCPP-compliant manufacturer, preventing lock-in and driving competition toward service, reliability, and pricing.
        • OCPI (Open Charge Point Interface): This protocol facilitates the necessary data exchange between operators (CPOs) and mobility service providers (eMSPs), allowing e-roaming platforms to integrate multiple networks efficiently and make comprehensive coverage viable.
        • IEEE 2030.5: This standard provides the necessary framework for reliable, coordinated communication for sophisticated use cases like V2G, ensuring that EVs can act as distributed energy resources across the grid.

        By championing and implementing these standards, the market can redirect competition toward productive areas like service quality, pricing, and user experience, rather than technical incompatibility.

        The Path to an Interoperable Future

        Portugal’s transition period through December 2026 presents a critical, time-sensitive window to establish open standards as market norms before proprietary approaches become entrenched. Infrastructure installed with proprietary protocols during this time will persist for years, potentially creating the compatibility islands that complicate the roaming ecosystem.

        Successfully synthesizing this legal liberalization with technical interoperability requires specialized domain expertise. Technology partners who prioritize and implement these open standards are essential to ensure the seamless market integration envisioned by the legislature.

        • The focus must be on building scalable platforms and accelerator solutions that are founded on proven, interoperable, and future-proof standards, giving CPOs and DSOs the freedom to adapt as the market evolves.
        • This approach ensures assets align with international standards, strengthens long-term asset value, and facilitates the adoption of advanced functionalities like V2G.

        The choice facing Iberia’s electric mobility sector is clear: fragmented competition that frustrates users and limits investment, or interoperable competition that drives innovation while maintaining the universal, seamless access that mass EV adoption requires. The implementation of open standards is what determines which path Portugal takes.