PRESS RELEASE: SMART/LAB and petrol station network Germany launch large-scale cooperation

Aachen, 29 November 2023.

Two networks, one idea. The reasons for the cooperation between Tankstellen-Netz-Deutschland (hereinafter referred to as TND) and SMART/LAB can be summarised in a nutshell. TND enables its operators to issue a multi-service card for refuelling and charging, while SMART/LAB gains a broadly networked cooperation partner with over 1,100 petrol station locations in Germany and extensive expertise in the fuel card business.

"A win-win situation for both networks" - this is how Dr Mark Steffen Walcher, Managing Director of SMART/LAB, describes the cooperation - "The structures of the TND and SMART/LAB networks are almost identical: many independent companies that now want to make electromobility accessible to their employees and end customers. The TND operating companies can offer their end customers the extension of their existing fuel cards to include electric charging and at the same time integrate their own charging stations into an established network and make them directly accessible to many users.

"Following a pilot phase, the first operators are now being successively connected. The technical linking of the SMART/LAB and TND IT systems was possible without having to fundamentally change the tried-and-tested systems and processes," reports Jasper Ewers, Key Account Manager at SMART/LAB. "The same operator and partner structure favoured this integration. Thanks to the new cooperation, the ladebusiness network will become even denser throughout Germany and play an increasingly important role in the EMP sector in particular."

"With SMART/LAB, we are delighted to have a partner at our side in the future whose way of thinking is very similar to TND. This means a considerable leap forward for both parties, from which customers in particular will benefit," says Sebastian Mundt, Managing Partner of TND.

"There have been many forward-looking developments within TND in recent years," adds Helmut Wittrock, also Managing Partner of TND "Of course, the topic of electromobility is also an important aspect for the mobility industry. With TND-eMobility, electric vehicles can now also be charged with the new petrol and charging card, the TND Multiservice Card. This adds another alternative energy source to the TND product range. We already had the idea of including electromobility in our portfolio a few years ago. We finally found the right partner for this expansion in SMART/LAB."

TND General Sales Manager Oliver Sandmann concludes: "Thanks to the collaboration with SMART/LAB, our customers with the TND Multiservice Card now have access to more than 55,000 charging points in Germany, including around 11,000 for DC and fast charging. Within TND, 13 operators have already been acquired for TND-eMobility this year, who have already set up over 50 charging points and made them available in public roaming - all participants in the network then also benefit from this. TND's goal is to contribute several hundred new charging points by 2024.