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EV Plug and Charge: How Automatic Charging Authentication Works

EV Plug and Charge automates vehicle identification and charging authorization through certificate-backed communication, but it requires compatible vehicles, chargers, and services.

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EV Plug and Charge lets a compatible electric vehicle identify and authorize itself when connected to compatible charging equipment. Instead of presenting an RFID card or starting a charging app, the driver can use automated, certificate-backed communication between the vehicle and charger. The vehicle, charger, and supporting services must all support the relevant implementation; it is not a universal feature.

What EV Plug and Charge means

Plug and Charge is a charging-authentication capability based on the ISO 15118 family of standards. It is designed to handle vehicle identification and charging authorization through communication between the electric vehicle (EV) and the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE)—the charger—without requiring the driver to provide an external identifier at the charger.

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The name describes the driver-facing experience, not a promise that every plug-in session will start automatically. The vehicle, charging equipment, and services that handle authorization and billing need compatible support.

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How Plug and Charge works

  1. The EV and EVSE communicate using interfaces defined in the ISO 15118 standards family.

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  2. Digital certificates and public key infrastructure (PKI) establish trust for authentication and authorization. In CharIN’s implementation guide, certificates are described as digitally signed by a trusted certificate authority, with chains of certificates used to establish trust.

  3. The charging service processes authorization and billing without the driver presenting an external identifier as part of the intended Plug and Charge flow.

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Certificate security matters: the private key associated with a certificate must be protected. CharIN’s guide says that if a private key is lost or disclosed, its corresponding public key should no longer be trusted and the key must be replaced.

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What ISO 15118 covers

ISO 15118 is a family of standards for communication between EVs and charging equipment. CharIN’s implementation guide describes Plug and Charge under ISO 15118-2:2014. The newer ISO 15118-20:2022 is broader than basic authentication: it specifies EV-to-EVSE communication requirements, messages for power transfer and bidirectional transfer, conductive and wireless charging requirements, communication with automatic connection devices, and charging and control status information.

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ISO lists the first edition of ISO 15118-20 as published in April 2022 and reports one amendment on its standard page. The existence of a newer standards generation does not mean all vehicles and chargers implement it.

Why compatibility is not automatic

A successful session depends on the vehicle, EVSE, and supporting service arrangements working together. Certificate and PKI policy also vary by implementation generation. CharIN lists a first-generation V2G PKI certificate policy compliant with ISO 15118-2 and a separate second-generation policy compliant with ISO 15118-20. Support for one generation should not be assumed to guarantee interoperability with every implementation of another.

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These standards descriptions do not establish compatibility for a particular vehicle model, charging network, or country. For a specific trip or vehicle, check current Plug and Charge support with the vehicle maker and charging provider.

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Plug and Charge versus presenting an identifier

In a conventional charging flow, a driver may need to start a session using an RFID card or an app. Plug and Charge is intended to remove that separate identification step by allowing the vehicle and charger to exchange the information needed for authorization. It changes how authentication is handled; it does not, by itself, establish that a charger is available, that a session will be free, or that every charging service participates.

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