This year at CES there seemed to be one topic that was top of mind: electric vehicles (EVs). While the electric vehicle is no new concept, the innovative technology about to hit the road like Chrysler’s Airflow Vision concept is groundbreaking. With automakers announcing plans to go all-electric in the coming years and Ford’s electric pickup truck set to hit the road this year. In addition to EV vehicles, there was a range of EV charging infrastructure firms like Blink ready to set up the infrastructure to charge EV’s across the nation. Now is the time for fintech and automotive to come together to disrupt and support the adoption of EVs and their potential.

This shift to connected EV’s will bring new possibilities for service providers to digitize offerings and offer consumers customizable technology. Charge the car? Need to pay for parking? Buy a cup of coffee on the way to a meeting? Get a smart alert on road congestion? Imagine financial transactions seamlessly being made from behind the wheel eliminating the need for cash and credit cards. The majority of these purchases will be small value transactions made frequently on an ad-hoc basis.

The possibilities for EV are endless but that’s not to say the road ahead is clear of speed bumps. 

To us at Dropp, the new world of connected cars and the associated ecosystem are an exciting opportunity. Our micropayment platform is designed specifically for consumers to make small value purchases without a credit card, privately without sharing any personal details via a secure Dropp mobile wallet. We anticipate in the future these payments will be made right from the car dashboard. Dropp is an alternative to using a credit card or carrying cash. Merchants can now accept payment in real-time without any of the hefty credit card fees associated with small payments. Think of digital payments as low as a parking meter fee (50 cents) or purchasing a can of soda.

Micropayments are small purchases generally under ten dollars to a fraction of a cent that people use daily to pay for things like street parking. Many merchants and industries struggle with these small payments because the associated fees make them unprofitable. Through Dropp’s technology — which is built on the Hedera Hashgraph distributed ledger system — these fees are made very affordable for small value transactions, opening up a wealth of opportunities for businesses. Merchants providing parking services, charging stations, smart city IoT sensor traffic data, and others in a smart city grid can leverage our platform to offer their services in smaller increments.

While CES has ended, the EV space is moving full speed ahead. Time will ultimately tell what’s next with concepts announced like the Chevy Silverado EV and whether or not Sony follows through on its plans to embark into auto manufacturing. However, one thing is certain; the EV industry is changing and micropayments have the ability to quite literally take the driver’s seat. 

To learn more about the future of connected cars—read our piece in WardsAuto.