A coalition of stakeholders aims to issue a US plug-and-charge protocol by 2025, allowing all electric vehicles to automatically start charging from public stations by simply connecting.
Announced on Wednesday, the program is carried out by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Joint Government Office of Energy and Transport, and the Electric Vehicle Public Key Infrastructure (EVPKI) consortium, which represents car manufacturers, charging networks, hardware manufacturers, and other private interests.
2023 Cadillac Lyriq at EVgo DC fast charging station.
Some automakers have been rolling out plug-and-charge components, often packaged as part of a charging ecosystem for individual brand customers. But that leaves a series of cases where plug-and-charge will work with some car-and-charger or car-and-network combinations but not others. This new effort aims to remove reliance away from individual automakers or specific hardware or software variations and make plug-and-charge the norm.
That means creating a common enabling framework all EVs, chargers, and charging networks to connect seamlesslya press release from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, a partnership between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), said. The office was created under the Biden administration's infrastructure legislation to serve as a focal point for the administration's national EV charging network.
2023 Nissan Ariya at EVgo charging station
The key to this is the Certificate of Trust List (CTL) to be developed by members of the organization. Can be collection of vehicles, hardware, and payment platforms that meet certain standards. The goal is to allow a quick verification when the car is connected to charge, by removing in advance those who adhere to these standards. The consortium also aims for stronger cyber security measures, something the federal government has been investigating since at least 2022.
No timeline has been given for the full rollout of this plug-and-charge revolution, but the initiative takes EV charging another step away from the bad old days of needing multiple accounts, cards, and fobs to access all public charging stations.