Why Digital Receipts Are Becoming Essential for EV and Fuel Retailers
21.08.2025
Mobility is changing rapidly. Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is accelerating, traditional fuel retailers are modernizing their networks, and payments are becoming increasingly digital. Alongside this transformation, one piece of the customer journey is quietly becoming a game changer: the receipt.
Once an afterthought, receipts are now a critical part of expense management, compliance, and customer engagement. For fuel retailers and charge point operators (CPOs), moving from paper slips to digital receipts is no longer just a nice-to-have, it is a necessity.
Here are four reasons why digital receipts are becoming essential in the EV and fuel sectors, and how global trends are pushing the shift forward.
1. Seamless business expenses and fleet management
Business and fleet drivers are among the heaviest users of both fuel stations and EV chargers. Yet for years they have struggled with lost receipts, manual uploads, and incomplete expense claims. With Visa pushing its Fleet 2.0 standard globally, digital receipts are becoming central to how fleets manage expenses in real time.
Practical examples include:
A logistics fleet using Visa Fleet 2.0 can have every fueling transaction instantly reconciled against mileage and driver data, eliminating the need for paper records.
EV ride-hailing services can automatically feed structured charging receipts into accounting systems, ensuring compliance with tax rules while reducing administrative overhead.
Corporate fleets can gain visibility over spend patterns across both fuel and EV charging, improving cost control and sustainability reporting.
Digital receipts don’t just save time, they transform expense management into a transparent, automated process aligned with the future of fleet payments.
2. Upsell and promotion opportunities during dwell time
In traditional fueling, dwell time is short, but with EV charging, customers often wait 10–30 minutes. This creates a prime opportunity for engagement, and retailers are increasingly looking to maximize this moment. Digital receipts provide a contextual channel to trigger personalized promotions.
Examples of how this plays out in practice:
A charging session receipt could include a QR code for a free coffee with a purchase in the shop, turning idle time into an in-store visit.
Seasonal promotions, such as discounts on winter car care products, can be delivered digitally right after the transaction when the customer is most receptive.
Loyalty programs can be integrated into digital receipts, giving customers bonus points or tailored offers based on their purchase history.
This trend mirrors what has already happened in retail and hospitality, where receipts are now being used as an extension of the brand experience. In EV charging especially, digital receipts turn dwell time into revenue time.
3. Cost and operational savings for operators
Operating large-scale fuel stations or charging networks is expensive. Traditional receipt printers may seem minor, but the costs are real: constant paper refills, maintenance, replacement parts, and customer service calls for reprints.
Digital receipts eliminate these pain points. For example:
CPOs deploying hundreds of chargers avoid installing and servicing printers across the network, significantly reducing hardware and consumables.
Fuel retailers report fewer customer calls asking for lost receipts, cutting down on support center workloads.
Staff can focus on customer service and retail upselling rather than troubleshooting printer issues.
In a sector where margins are tight, these savings matter. The shift away from printers also supports broader sustainability goals, which many retailers and energy companies are already prioritizing in their ESG strategies.
4. Meeting regulatory and fiscal requirements
Europe has been at the forefront of tightening fiscal rules, with markets such as Austria, Italy, and France requiring receipts to be fiscalized. In Austria, the RKSV regulation mandates that any transaction above 20 Euros must have a fiscalized receipt. Paper slips are no longer sufficient, which means CPOs and fuel retailers need to move toward secure digital solutions.
Other regulatory drivers include:
EU-wide trends toward paperless compliance and mandatory digital archiving of receipts.
Tax authorities increasingly requiring structured data formats for easier audits.
Upcoming sustainability initiatives that may push companies to phase out paper-heavy processes.
By adopting digital receipts now, operators not only meet current obligations but also future-proof themselves against the next wave of regulatory requirements.
How ReceiptHero is enabling this transition
ReceiptHero sits at the intersection of these trends, helping retailers and CPOs adopt digital receipts at scale. The company is already active with leading industry players:
Neste, one of the largest fuel retailers in the Nordics, has deployed ReceiptHero to deliver digital receipts to customers across its network.
Siemens Sicharge D and Alpitronic EV chargers integrate with ReceiptHero, enabling digital-first receipt delivery across Europe’s most advanced charging infrastructure.
As a Visa Ready for Fleet partner, ReceiptHero supports the rollout of Visa Fleet 2.0, helping CPOs and fuel retailers serve the growing demand from fleet and business customers.
The road ahead
The receipt may seem like a small part of the customer journey, but in EV and fuel retail it touches critical areas: compliance, expense management, customer loyalty, and operational efficiency. Digital receipts are not just replacing paper, they are becoming a strategic enabler of growth and compliance.
With major players like Visa, Siemens, and Neste already moving in this direction, the momentum is clear. Retailers and CPOs that adopt digital receipts early will gain cost savings, stronger customer relationships, and a competitive edge in meeting both business and regulatory demands.
ReceiptHero is helping the industry make this shift today, setting the standard for how receipts will work in the mobility ecosystem of tomorrow.