Imagine one day in the near future, any EV driver having the ability to charge at any EV charging station. As the EV market continues to advance, the primary objective of the EVRoaming Foundation is to facilitate effective global roaming services for consumers charging EVs and provide transparent information like tariffs, billing, and charging locations.
Why Harmonisation Matters
In the early days of mobile phone networks, Europe agreed on the technical parameters of the GSM mobile phone standards by using a committee to set the standards and the technical legacy. Similarly, the EV charging industry is establishing a committee to develop standards for the industry and its consumers.
The Foundation’s mission is to develop the independent Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) protocol. Efficiently adopting this protocol will achieve the ultimate goal to advance the market through innovation, open competition, transparency, and increased customer choice for charging locations.
Michel Bayings, Development Manager of EVRoaming Foundation has said, “It is our goal to support connectivity between operators and service providers by transferring information about billing and charger accessibility from the operator to the service provider, while supporting information needs to the EV driver.” Michel also shared his thoughts on the future of OCPI and explained, “By creating a universal connection through OCPI, so that everyone speaks the same language, companies can now implement this connection which will result in easier connections and cheaper charging costs, quicker charge times, fewer queues, and open competitiveness and transparency for all.”
The current EVRoaming Foundation community is a broad mix of charge point operators, service providers, and IT companies and includes 600 companies and more than 40 contributors who provide input regarding the OCPI standards. In fact, even navigation provider Google is a member of the Foundation.
The Vision
With the vision to allow any EV driver to charge at any charging station, providing information regarding charger availability and prices, and improving the charging speed, the challenge is to get everyone on the same page.
What testbed standards should be used?
To drive design principles and development, it is important to reach a consensus regarding the direction of OCPI standardisation. The consumer inspires and drives the development of the protocol. However, the challenge is to respond to the request of the market and get the Foundation’s members to agree on the features that should be prioritised, such as the security features. Using testbeds and voting from contributors in the U.S., the E.U, and other parts of the world is an important part of the development process.
As with many industries, it is crucial to ensure that regulatory agencies understand and support the EV industry with better regulation. The EVRoaming Foundation advises many countries and the European Commission, which establishes what should and should not be regulated in a specific market. Thus, the Commission is an important stakeholder in supporting EV charging progression and standards.
As EV adoption accelerates and more charge point operators utilise OCPI, customers will ultimately benefit from a better charging experience.
For EVA Global, OCPI is an important protocol for integrating with our customers. We are looking forward to contributing to this community with our unique experience with OCPI to provide the best EV driver satisfaction.
Learn more about OCPI on EVRoaming Foundation website.