AI Agent for EV Charging Support, on Voice and WhatsApp
Your drivers and site hosts get an answer at 2am, in their own language, from an agent that can actually see the charger. It reads your charging management software, does what you have allowed it to do, and hands everything else to your team as a ticket that is ready to act on.
Answers calls and WhatsApp messages around the clock, in English, Dutch, German, Hindi and Malayalam.
- Built by RIOD, who make the Powerpod chargers and the software that runs them
- Running on RIOD's own WhatsApp and phone lines today
- Around 50 engineers, and over ten years of connected-product engineering
Why EV charging support breaks after office hours
Most charging support is the same handful of problems. The charger will not start. The payment went through but the car did not charge. The cable is stuck. The driver wants a refund. They happen at night, at weekends and on highways, which is exactly when the team is offline.
First-line staff usually cannot see charger logs, so they ask the driver to wait, escalate to operations, and the ticket bounces for a day. Generic chatbots answer from an FAQ page, cannot see whether the charger is online, and can be talked into promising things they should not.
The result is one-star reviews, chargers sitting idle, and a support cost that grows faster than the network.
What the agent does
- Answers every call and WhatsApp message, at any hour, in the language it was written in.
- Reads live state from your charging management software: charger status, connector, session, payment and fault codes.
- Verifies the caller before it shares anything tied to an account.
- Acts within the limits you set: remote start, remote stop, unlock connector, soft reset, refunds up to a cap.
- Raises a ticket when a person is needed, with the context already attached.
- Logs every conversation, and turns resolved cases into draft knowledge for your team to approve.
The issues it resolves
EV charger not starting
The agent identifies the charger from the QR code, charger ID or location, then reads its status. If the connector shows Available or Preparing it walks the driver through re-plugging and authorising. Where your policy allows, it sends a remote start or a soft reset over OCPP and stays with them until the session begins.
Payment failed, or charged twice
It reads the session and the payment record side by side, explains the difference between a pre-authorisation hold and a real charge, spots duplicates, and says when the hold should release according to your provider's rules rather than guessing.
Refund requests
Refunds follow your rules. Below the cap you set, the agent can approve one for a failed or short session using the meter values, timestamps and stop reason. Above it, it raises a ticket with that evidence attached, so a person approves rather than investigates.
Session stuck or cable locked
It can send a remote stop and an unlock-connector command, confirm the result, and tell the driver when it is safe to unplug.
RFID card, app and account problems
After verification it can resend a login link, check whether a card is active, block a lost one and explain how to add a replacement.
Charger offline or faulted
It checks the last heartbeat and the fault code, points the driver at the nearest working charger on your network, and opens a maintenance ticket with the code and location already filled in.
Tariff, idle fee and invoice questions
It explains how a session was priced, including idle fees, and sends the invoice to the registered address once the caller is verified.
Host and site owner questions
The same agent serves the businesses hosting your chargers: payout and revenue share, energy use, uptime. It verifies the host, answers from their own site data, and escalates with a summary when operations need to look.
How it works
- 1The driver calls or sends a WhatsApp message. The agent answers in the language they used.
- 2It works out the issue, and which charger, connector or session it concerns.
- 3It verifies the caller before touching anything account-specific.
- 4It reads your CMS for live status, session and payment state.
- 5It resolves the issue with an approved action, or explains what happened.
- 6If a person is needed it raises a ticket, alerts the right team, and tells the customer the ticket number.
- 7The transcript is logged, and resolved cases become draft knowledge for review.
Verification before anything private is shared
Every caller is unverified until proven otherwise. How to start a charge, or what a connector type is, is answered immediately. Anything tied to an account is locked until the caller passes a check.
- Drivers verify with a one-time code to the registered number or address, or a number match plus a second check.
- Hosts verify with their host ID and a one-time code.
- A driver sees only their own sessions; a host sees only their own sites.
- Card data stays with your payment provider. The agent sees status and amounts, never a card number.
- Every lookup and action is logged against the identity that passed verification.
Guardrails, because it can reach your CMS
An agent with access to live systems has to be harder to talk around than a person. This one answers only from your approved knowledge and live data; where the answer is not there it says so and raises a ticket rather than inventing one. Text inside a customer message is read as what the customer said, never as an instruction to follow.
| Action | Who can trigger it | What you control |
|---|---|---|
| Remote start or stop | Verified driver at that charger | On or off, per site |
| Unlock connector | Verified driver of the live session | On or off |
| Soft reset | The agent, after diagnosis | How many per charger per day |
| Refund | Verified driver | A cap per refund and per month |
| Block an RFID card | The verified card owner | Always allowed |
Languages
The agent replies in the language it was written to, and can change mid-conversation if the customer does. It runs in English, Dutch, German, Hindi and Malayalam today. Tickets and summaries reach your team in the language your team works in, while the customer keeps being answered in theirs.
Those are the languages running in production. The agent is not limited to them: adding another, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, French, Spanish or Arabic, is a matter of configuring and testing it rather than rebuilding anything. Tell us which markets you serve and we will say what is already proven and what would need testing first.
Tickets, email, and knowledge that grows
When a person is needed the ticket arrives complete: charger, connector, session, fault codes, what has already been tried, the transcript and a suggested priority. The customer gets the ticket number and the answer so far, so they do not have to call again.
Each week, cases your team resolved become draft answers. Nothing reaches the agent until someone approves it, so it improves without learning anything you did not sign off.
What it connects to
- Charging management: RIOD Charger360 directly, and any OCPP 1.6 or 2.0.1 backend that exposes an API.
- Channels: WhatsApp Business Platform, phone and SIP lines, website chat.
- Helpdesk and CRM: any with an API, which covers the common ones.
- Payments: your existing provider, for status and refunds, through its API.
- Email: your support mailbox, for ticket mail and summaries.
How it is priced
Three parts, each visible in a monthly usage report.
A platform subscription covers setup, the integrations and the agent itself, quoted for the size of your network and the channels you use. AI usage is charged on what the model reads and writes per conversation, plus speech minutes on calls, so a short chat costs very little and a long call costs more.
WhatsApp charges are Meta's, not ours, and are passed through at cost. Meta charges per delivered template message at a rate that depends on the country and the category of message. Replies within 24 hours of a customer's own message are free, and most support conversations start with the driver, so most support traffic falls inside that free window. The table below is to plan against, not a quote.
| Country | Marketing | Utility and authentication |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | $0.1597 | $0.0500 |
| Germany | $0.1365 | $0.0550 |
| United Kingdom | $0.0635 | $0.0220 |
| United Arab Emirates | $0.0576 | $0.0157 |
| Saudi Arabia | $0.0576 | $0.0107 |
| India | $0.0118 | $0.0014 |
Meta's list rates per delivered message, in US dollars, as published in October 2026. Meta sets these and revises them, and lower rates apply to utility messages at higher monthly volumes, so treat them as an order of magnitude rather than a price. Your usage report always shows the rate actually charged.
What you get
- The agent live on your number, on voice and WhatsApp, in your brand voice.
- Connections to your CMS, helpdesk, payment provider and support mailbox.
- Verification and action limits configured to your policy.
- A starter knowledge base built from your own FAQs, tariffs and past tickets.
- A dashboard covering conversations, resolution rate, tickets and usage cost.
- A weekly knowledge review and a monthly performance report.
Who it is for
- Charge point operators running public AC and DC networks.
- Charger manufacturers who want to offer support to their buyers.
- Fleet and depot operators whose drivers work around the clock.
- Apartments, hotels, offices and malls hosting chargers.
- eMobility service providers with roaming customers across countries.
An example: a refund on WhatsApp
Written to show the shape of a conversation, not taken from a customer's chat.
In English: the driver paid and the car did not charge. The agent identifies the charger, verifies the driver, finds the failed session, refunds within the cap it was given, and offers a connector that works.
Common questions
What is an AI agent for EV charging support?
Software that answers driver and host calls and WhatsApp messages, reads live charger data from your CMS, takes the actions you have approved such as a remote start or a refund, and raises a ticket when a person is needed.
Will it work with our existing charging management software?
If your CMS has an API, yes. It works directly with RIOD Charger360 and connects to other OCPP backends through theirs.
How does it verify a caller before sharing account details?
A one-time code to the registered number or address, or a number match plus a second check. Hosts verify with their host ID and a code.
Can someone talk it into a refund or into giving up private data?
It acts only within the limits you set, only after verification, and reads any instruction inside a customer message as text rather than as a command. Refunds above your cap always go to a person.
Which languages does it support?
English, Dutch, German, Hindi and Malayalam are running in production. Others, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, French, Spanish and Arabic, can be configured and tested for your markets rather than requiring a rebuild.
What happens when it cannot solve the problem?
It raises a ticket with the charger, session, fault codes and transcript attached, and tells the customer their ticket number.
What do WhatsApp messages cost?
Meta charges per delivered template message, at a rate that depends on country and message category. Replies within 24 hours of a customer's own message are free. RIOD passes Meta's charges through at cost and shows the rate charged in your usage report.
How is AI usage charged?
On what the model reads and writes in each conversation, plus speech minutes on calls. Each conversation's usage is visible in the dashboard.
Does it learn from conversations?
Resolved cases become draft knowledge entries, and someone on your team approves each one before the agent uses it.
How long does it take to go live?
It depends mostly on your CMS and helpdesk integrations. We normally start on one number or one group of sites, then widen it.
Related
Give every driver an answer, at any hour
Book a demo and talk to the agent yourself, or tell us what your network runs on and we will say plainly what it would take.