One Thousand Stations In, Allego Ditches the App

Allego's 1,000th European fast-charger debuts Plug & Charge tech in France, making app-free EV charging a reality at scale

28 Oct 2025

Allego, the Dutch electric vehicle charging operator, opened its 1,000th high-power station in Europe in October 2025 at the Aire de Lamanon rest stop on France's A7 motorway, a main route between Lyon and Marseille. The site is also the first in its network to deploy Plug & Charge at scale, a technology that authenticates a charging session automatically when a cable is connected, removing the need for a payment card, app, or RFID tag.

The system works through ISO 15118, a communication standard that creates an encrypted link between a vehicle and a charger at the moment of connection. The Lamanon site supports charging speeds of up to 400 kilowatts, placing it among the most capable public chargers in France. The technology addresses one of the more consistent complaints about public charging: the difficulty of navigating different operator networks, each with its own payment method.

Allego has built its network over a decade, now spanning 16 European countries with roughly 35,000 charge points and close to one million charging sessions per month. Alongside the station opening, the company announced a unified app that will allow drivers to locate stations, plan routes, and manage sessions across its network in a single interface.

France has become the focal point of Europe's high-power charging expansion. Ultra-fast charging infrastructure in the country grew 115 per cent over a two-year period to 2024, the fastest rate in Europe. Smart electricity meter penetration above 95 per cent nationally supports dynamic load management at the grid level. A government mandate taking effect in January 2026 will require all newly installed public AC chargers to comply with the ISO 15118-2 standard, the technical basis for Plug & Charge, which is expected to drive wider adoption across the market.

For operators such as Allego, France's regulatory direction aligns with investments already under way. Whether the combination of hardware authentication and consolidated software will meaningfully accelerate mainstream EV uptake across the continent remains an open question, given that charging network fragmentation across borders has yet to be fully resolved.