The vision of a cleaner and greener future.

In the recent years, while people became more conscious about climate change, the reduction of CO2 emissions started to become a political requirement, and environment-friendly behavior gained more respect, the world experienced some first changes.

Electric vehicles were launched to the market as well as the corresponding e-charging stations. Admittedly, consumers quickly realized they could not charge their car at every charging station. In some cases, there was a mismatch between plug, charger, and network. So, what was the answer to this challenge? Quite easy, one may think: a common charging plug.

What sounds simple, however, requires way more: A legal framework and statutory directives are needed to guideline the collaboration of various industry players giving recommendations for a global common solution. And this solution still needs to fulfill regional, governing law and tax legislation. “Being global, acting local” describes CharIN´s transversal approach spanning from energy provider, to grid and infrastructure, from the electric vehicle up to the user aiming at constantly improving the customer´s journey.

And this is where the non-profit organization CharIN comes into play giving a voice to our common goal in each region of the world. CharIN is a worldwide industry alliance with members from the entire, cross-industry value chain around the globe. Together, we align on topics around e-mobility considering all players of the ecosystem and thus, push the deployment of e-mobility on a global scale and for all stakeholders, be it cars, trucks, or buses, and even vehicles from the navigation and aviation sectors.

We align on topics around the charging of electric vehicles of all types, be it cars, trucks, or buses, and even vehicles from the navigation and aviation sectors.

What’s in it for politics, companies, and consumers?

The advantages of the Combined Charging System (CCS) and the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) are obvious. Any implementation for electric vehicle charging that requires additional protocols would create further delays, uncertainties, interoperability issues, and potentially collateral costs.

On the other hand, the CharIN solution has quite some benefits on board:

  • The Combined Charging System CCS is one system for all.

  • We provide interoperability by using ISO/IEC 15118, also for additional features.

  • The customer enjoys comfort features like Plug and Charge, Automated Conductive Charging, etc.

  • We create a fair ecosystem for the public key infrastructure (PKI), necessary for the plug and charge roll-out.

  • Our association facilitates a comprehensive infrastructure including high-power charging (HPC).

  • The environment is enabled for an easy infrastructure setup.

  • The consumer profits by intelligent load management including vehicle battery and grid.

  • Our solution allows for Vehicle to Grid management (V2G).

  • There is an extension to the Megawatt Charging System MCS for commercial vehicles.

Learn more about Plug & Charge and its convincing advantages

CharIN’s approach is global, cross-industry, and holistic

Over the last six years, CharIN has been establishing the Combined Charging System (CCS) in the market. CCS is extensively based on the international standard ISO/IEC 15118.

Founded in 2015 with eleven members only, the CharIN alliance counts more than 260 active member companies today.

We have become the largest global user group of the present standards.

CharIN’s members have a year-long experience in implementing these standards into their products to serve the market. International teams are working on guidelines to solve challenges in the different application fields. 

Currently, they are organized in five working groups focusing on: 

  • Charging Communication 

  • Charging Connection 

  • Charging Infrastructure 

  • Conformance Test / Interoperability 

  • Grid Integration 

The so-called CharIN Focus Groups do also include specialized subgroups and task forces concentrating only on one defined topic. They all develop industry-aligned position papers as well as recommendations for industries as a worldwide baseline for standardization.

Our members share one goal:

”The industry must continue to move towards interoperability where vehicles, chargers, and software systems work together – without any specialist knowledge or effort on the consumer’s side.”

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CharIN’s testing events – Testivals

Throughout the past five years, CharIN supported and conducted some 20 interoperability test events for charging and certification. Our interoperability testing - our Testivals - take place around the globe and helps accelerate the deployment of a comprehensive charging infrastructure in the respective countries.

Therefore, they require to be supported by the respective governmental institutions with further investment and engagement in CharIN`s interoperability events.

In cooperation with politics, CharIN can increase the awareness on political level, the proper visibility, and help optimize the spending on infrastructure and the investment in interoperability test events.

CharIN is dedicated to change the world for the better

The non-profit organization CharIN supports and runs several projects together with other key players. For instance, on European level, we delivered an essential input in our joint initiative with ACEA, ACEM, ChargeUp Europe, and EURELECTRIC. Here, the objective was to define a harmonized set of labels for electric vehicles and charging stations.

Another example is the project “Plug and Charge“ (PnC) where we help developing a new technology to improve the charging of electric vehicles for consumers. The payment process will be stored with security keys and the charging station will communicate independently with the EV. In addition, the German Federal Government sponsors our project “Wirkkette Laden” (WKL) (English: charging chain of effects). What is more, we have global strategic partnerships and cooperate with:

  • AVERE, the European Association for Electromobility
  • the California Energy Commission (CEC)
  • the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) in the USA
  • European institutions thanks to our CharIN Brussels Office with its Head of Public Affairs, Glenn Cezanne
Make the flagship brand CharIN your point of reference for all topics around the charging of electric vehicles.

Do you feel inspired by what we could achieve together? Do you have further queries?

We’re happy to listen to your ideas, and to answer your questions.

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