Tag: european qr codes

QR codes are a central part of a European electric car charging program

| June 2, 2013

The smartphone friendly barcodes are a vital element of a new German joint venture.

According to the latest announcement from the Hubject GmbH joint venture participants among German auto manufacturers, being able to access any electric car charging station across Europe could require nothing more than the scanning of QR codes.

The new “eRoaming” platform was unveiled in Berlin at a conference that could change the electric car ecosystem.

This platform will make it possible for electric car owners to use QR codes to be able to charge their vehicles at any European station as long as they have their smartphones handy. The joint venture company, Hubject GmbH, comes with the tagline “Charge wherever you like” and this new smartphone friendly barcode will make the group even more capable of living up to its words.

The QR codes will allow it to come closer to its vision of making all charging stations accessible.

QR Codes - Electric CarsThe group spoke at the International Emobility Conference that was held in Germany and explained that the QR codes allow the owners of electric cars to charge their vehicles at any stations without having to obtain a membership with that specific station’s owner.

In both the United States and Europe, a charging station network owns the majority of charging stations, and access is limited to individuals who have a membership with that network. There are times that electric vehicle owners will head into a charging station in dire need of recharging, but cannot do so because of the limited access that those networks provide.

It is a dilemma that is being compared to that in the 1990s, when cell phone users had specific roaming agreements and could find that their service was either unavailable or was exceptionally expensive if users travelled outside their designated service area. The same idea is now being experienced by electric car owners who now have “roaming” style access to charging stations.

With the QR codes, any of the stations in Europe will become available to all electric vehicle drivers. It is expected that it won’t be long before a similar type of joint venture develops in the United States and other countries where electric vehicles are growing in popularity.

QR codes used more in United States than in Western Europe

| January 30, 2013

QR Codes SurveyAmerican smartphone users are more likely to scan than those in the U.K., France, and Germany.

A recent survey by Pitney Bowes has shown that an American smartphone user is more likely to scan QR codes than those in Western Europe, no matter what the medium of delivery may be for those codes.

The results of this survey support those that were produced by other researchers at the same time.

The Pitney Bowes survey included the participation of 1,000 people from Europe, and 2,000 from the United States. When the QR codes were included in print magazines, almost twenty percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 scanned it. Similarly, 36 percent of participants from that country who were between the ages of 25 and 34 scanned one.

The results produced by eMarketer regarding Western European QR codes scans were notably lower.

Among Europeans, when QR codes were printed in magazines, Germany had the next highest percentage of scanners, where 27 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 used the barcodes. Among those between the ages of 25 and 34, 23 percent scanned them.

Overall, it was the respondents in the young adult category who had the greatest likelihood of scanning QR codes in a magazine. Among the participants in the survey, 27 percent in that age bracket had tried at least one. Those were the consumers who had a tendency to hold the greatest familiarity with barcode scanning on various other forms of printed materials, as well. Those included product packaging, posters, and mail. In fact, 21 percent said that they had tried all three of those.

They were, however, also the group who were the least likely to scan QR codes that were presented on a digital screen such as in an email (9 percent), on television (7 percent), or on a website (13 percent).

While they may not have gone mainstream in Europe, QR codes are still widely used in both the United States and in the European countries that were included in the survey. comScore recently reported that the number scanners of these barcodes in Germany had reached 5.1 million, there were 3.4 million in Spain (not included in Pitney Bowes’ survey), and 3.3 million in the U.K.