The CCS initiative CharIN has presented the official logo of Plug&Charge, which is to be used in future as a distinctive feature to identify the charging points equipped accordingly. However, it is not obligatory for charging point operators and car manufacturers to display the logo.
“The logo is open to all companies that implement and validate this function in their products in accordance with ISO 15118-2 or ISO 15118-20,” says CharIN. The initiative presented the logo at its own CharIN test festival in Zielona Gora, Poland – here, a VW ID.4 was charged on stage at a charging pole of the Polish manufacturer Ekoenergetyka, on which the new logo can be seen.
With the logo on the charging pole, the charging point operators (Charge Point Operators or CPOs for short) should be able to give “the customer adequate visibility of the functionality”. But manufacturers can also place the logo on cars that support Plug&Charge. The logo’s “supporters” include Alpitronic, Aral Pulse, Dekra, Delta, dSpace, Ekoenergetyka, Electrify America, Hubject, Hyundai, Ionity, the National Charging Infrastructure Control Centre, Scania, Tritium, VW and Volvo, among many others according to CharIN.
Plug&Charge enables automated communication and billing processes between an electric vehicle and charging station without RFID cards, credit/debit cards or charging apps while maintaining high IT security. It also enables automatic authentication and authorisation at each charging station “so that the customer can experience a seamless and simple charging process”, according to the release.
The challenge is that the Plug&Charge functionality is not tied to a specific charging station or model. Customers therefore cannot simply see at the charging station itself whether plugging in the cable with Plug&Charge is enough to start the charging process – or whether a charging card, app or credit card is needed. For example, both Aral Pulse and EnBW use the Hypercharger from Alpitronic. At Aral Pulse, Plug&Charge is now implemented at all locations, while EnBW relies on the technically simpler (and, from CharIN’s point of view, less secure) AutoCharge solution. The Plug&Charge logo is meant to remedy this.
Keyword: CharIn presents the Plug&Charge official logo