Shift Magazine - July 2021 - 15

as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Porsche
Taycan, Audi E-tron and models from
Lucid and Rivian. Fifteen to 20 models
from various automakers are compatible
with the technology. The first, though,
was the all-electric Smart ForTwo in 2018,
according to Hubject CEO Christian Hahn.
Hubject is an e-mobility company that
has been working for years as a manager
of all of these memberships and clubs for
EV drivers, especially in Europe, where the
e-roaming scene was even more complex
than in the U.S. Hahn said the fact that
Plug and Charge is finally becoming available
to more drivers is a sign that things
have changed. For years, he said, charging
companies were focused on simply installing
public chargers -
creating a " dot on a
map " - so that something
was available to
early adopters.
" That's now done,
Electrify America: Ready for Plug and Charge, which automatically authorizes payments
EVs that can tap into multiple charging
networks using a technology called Plug
and Charge all point to a simpler future for
EV owners, Friedland said.
" The reason why it's still the worst of
times is that the charging industry, while
it's gotten better and there are lots of new
roaming agreements so you don't need to
carry as many [access] cards around, is
that, in general, too many are still resisting
the minimum common denominator,
which is credit cards, " he said.
TURNING POINTS
There has been some improvement
on that front. More and more charging
stations now come equipped with card
readers, including all of the DC fast charge
stations from Electrify America, the company
formed from Volkswagen's settlement
with the U.S. after the automaker's
diesel emissions scandal. California Air
Resources Board standards also require
new charging outlets to accept credit
cards, and similar efforts are underway in
Washington state.
Beyond simply accepting credit cards,
many charging sites, including all of
Electrify America's stations, are ready for
Plug and Charge, a technology that automatically
allows communication between
a charging station and a vehicle to authorize
payments without the driver ever
needing to pull out their wallet.
" You used to always have to join a
club to get a charge, " Electrify America's
Barrosa said.
EV advocates have been working for
years for a simplified charging environment,
and Friedland credits one particular
automaker for showing the rest of the
industry how it's done.
" Obviously, Tesla figured it out early,
this concept of 'plug and charge' and
what will become ISO 15118, the Plug and
Charge standard, " he said.
Plug and Charge is or will be available
on the F-150 Lightning and EQS as well
and now we can focus
on the customer experience,
on reliability, on
scalability and on standardization
because it is becoming a more
mature market, " he said.
Hahn: Focus on
customers now
NOT 'A THING'
Plug and Charge is also signaling the
next stage of public vehicle charging
through the way it handles IT security,
Hahn said. Europe is now seeing its first
EV charging scams, he said, adding that
Plug and Charge protocols will help defend
against potential hacks.
" Whatever we have done in the past is
just the beginning of a huge market that is
coming soon. " he said. " This huge market
will [work] if we find a good solution that
standard customers, normal people who
are not believers, who are not pioneers,
who are not doing it for improving the climate,
who are just normal people, make it
happen. And that's a challenge. "
Barrosa said the important thing is to
make charging not really " a thing. "
" It's about essentially making charging
uneventful, " he said. " You got what you
wanted, you didn't think twice, and it
worked. That is, ultimately, what the EV
movement needs. " n
july 2021 * shift 15

https://www.autonews.com/management-briefing-seminars/teaching-evs-and-chargers-speak-common-language https://www.autonews.com/management-briefing-seminars/teaching-evs-and-chargers-speak-common-language https://www.autonews.com/article/20181028/OEM06/181029805/vw-s-charge-electrify-america https://www.autonews.com/article/20181028/OEM06/181029805/vw-s-charge-electrify-america

Shift Magazine - July 2021

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