Universal plug and charge tool for electric vehicle charging stations will be available in 2025
To fill one If the car has gas, you usually only need a credit card or cash. To charge one tram at a DC fast charging station, you need a bunch of things to work—a credit card reader, an app for that charger’s network, a working touchscreen—and they’re all a little different.
That situation could change next year if new “Universal Plug and Charge” initiative from SAE International, a group of electric car and charger manufacturers, is moving forward and gaining ground. Launching in early 2025, the network could make charging electric vehicles actually easier than filling up gas: Plug in, let the car and charger figure out the payment details via a cloud connection, and go.
Some car complexes and charging networks already offer such a system through a patchwork of individual deals, e.g. listed at Inside EVs. Teslas have always delivered a plug-and-charge experience thanks to tight integration between their Superchargers and vehicles. Currently Tesla will join the plug-and-charge movement, allowing Teslas to get nearly the same experience at other stations.
Public key infrastructure for electric vehiclesor EVPKI, has a large number of key players and is built on the ISO standard (15118) to help authenticated and authorized cars charge at stations faster and more safely. There are many certifications issued at each step of the charging process, as detailed in the EVPKI presentationand the system includes a Certified Trust List. With open standards and authentication systems, there should be room for new charging networks and automakers.
Paid networks can and likely will continue to offer incentives for brand loyalty, whether through apps or rewards points. But new electric vehicle owners won’t have to do too much to find the “good stuff” on the road.
By connecting cars to key-based authentication systems, the initiative also has the potential to promote vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging, where giant batteries in cars can be used to balance the electrical load in the area and make the grid more resilient.
“We are rapidly moving towards a future where every electric vehicle driver can simply plug in, charge and go; The network will communicate with your car and process the payment seamlessly,” Gabe Klein, executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, said in a statement. “This is a fundamental step in architecture toward enabling true two-way charging and vehicle-to-grid integration, the holy grail for energy and transportation.” The Joint Office is a partnership between the Departments of Energy and Transportation.
The EV Hummer-sized elephant in the room is how the incoming Trump administration, with statement of objection on the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies, which could affect this initiative. Klein told The Verge that, with buy-in and real work being done by automakers and the industry—including Elon Musk-led Tesla—”the ship has sailed, if you will.”
This story originally appeared ABOVE Ars Technica.
