Mercedes-Benz drives in-car fuel payments through new Mastercard partnership
Mercedes-Benz is enabling its customers in Germany to pay for fuel directly from their car through a new partnership with Mastercard.
Mercedes-Benz partners Mastercard for in-car payments
Available for select car models, the partnership enables customers who hold either Mastercard debit or credit cards to complete fuel station transactions by scanning their fingerprint through the Mercedes Pay+ payment service.
The service is connected to the Mercedes Fuel and Pay function and can calculate the required amount and cost of fuel prior to the transaction being completed.
The partnership follows research from GfK, conducted on behalf of Mastercard, which found that 60% of 18 to 39-year-olds would prefer to pay their car’s refuelling bill directly from the in-built infotainment system.
Mastercard’s chief digital officer, Jorn Lambert, says that digital payments are “coming of age” and that “consumers want to embrace new forms that are infused into their everyday experiences”.
Franz Reiner, chairman of the board of Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG, has also confirmed that his company is “already working on the integration of further services”.
Mercedes-Benz already has an established relationship with Visa, which has enabled in-car payments via its delegated authentication and cloud token framework technology since the launch of Mercedes Pay+ in March.
With Mastercard now in the mix, the car company will be seeking to further expand the payment capabilities of its vehicles, with the function currently available at 3,600 participating service stations across Germany.
