up and plug in. It’s foreseeable that this standard, or a new technology innovation not foreseen by a regulator, could be quickly adopted and solve roaming and access issues across the board. It’s also worth pointing out that Tesla’s Supercharger network, which is generally considered the most advanced network in service today, does charge drivers a fee for charging, but has never found it necessary to install credit card readers. As a private network only available to Tesla owners, it would not be subject to the new requirement. However, as ClipperCreek’s Jason France points out, the requirement could prevent Tesla from ever opening up its Supercharger network to other EV drivers. “If they ever do fully open access for any electric car to use the Supercharger network, wouldn’t that be an amazingly positive thing for the industry? But if suddenly they’re governed by these other requirements, which they don’t want because there is no added value, they’ll be discouraged from doing that.” Working together To some, it seems that ARB is trying to solve a problem from the past that has already begun to work itself out. Five years ago, interoperability and open access among charging networks was a real issue - if a driver didn’t have a Charge-
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Point card (for example), they couldn’t use a ChargePoint charger. However, most of the networks have added phone numbers to their chargers, so non-members can call to initiate a charging session. And the industry is steadily innovating in the direction of interoperability. To cite just one example, Hubject, a platform that enables roaming among different charging networks, boasts over 300 B2B partners in 26 countries and is rapidly expanding in the US and China. It seems that all of the major players are already moving in the right direction for ultimate customer value and benefit. All the representatives from ABB, ClipperCreek and other companies that Charged spoke to were quick to note that they do not want to slam the efforts and ultimate goals of ARB and other regulatory agencies. Open access and network interoperability are very important objectives to work towards, and are integral to the success of EVs. However the
Image courtesy of Electrify America
One promising new payment tech is ISO 15118, the Plug & Charge standard, which allows a charging session to be authenticated and paid for simply by plugging in a vehicle, with no card or app required.