Plug&Charge: Electrify America and Hubject team up
Hubject has announced a strategic cooperation with Electrify America, Volkswagen’s subsidiary founded in the wake of the diesel scandal in the USA for the purpose of establishing charging infrastructure. The main focus of the cooperation is on the implementation of standards.
Strictly speaking, Hubject will provide the American Volkswagen subsidiary with its expertise in implementing the international ISO standard 15118 on the North American market, the most common application of which is known as Plug&Charge.
According to Hubject, Electrify America will be the first DC fast charging network in the United States to offer this technology at its charging stations. The introduction of Plug&Charge at more than 2,000 public charging stations is planned by the end of the year.
Moreover, the introduction of the standard at all DC and AC charging stations of Electrify America paves the way for future smart charging and the vehicle network communication (V2G) required for Plug&Charge. This allows vehicles to automatically authenticate and authorise when loading, eliminating the need for RFID cards, credit cards or mobile apps. “Plug&Charge-capable vehicles and infrastructures enable the driver of an electric vehicle to start and charge the charging process by simply plugging the charging cable into the vehicle,” describes Hubject.
Moreover, Hubject is also working to enable billing by simply plugging in. Their recent cooperation with ReCharge is to allow electric car drivers to pay automatically but the technology requires automakers to install the proprietary ReCharge technology on the electric vehicle (we reported).
Back to Electrify America – their charging systems have charging capacities from 50 to 350 kW and are technically ready for Plug&Charge. In 2019 alone, the VW company plans to install a further 500 fast-charging stations in the USA.
Coming from Europe, the roaming specialist had kicked off their US operation in June 2018 reportedly. Hubject’s Santa Monica HQ is the new base from where to spread the interoperable charging platform intercharge.
Hubject will begin work on the Plug&Charge initiative for Electrify America immediately.
Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.
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