Hubject launces Plug&Charge testing system
Hubject has announced the launch of the Open Plug&Charge Testing System. This allows market participants to access a neutral testing environment to discover more features of Plug&Charge without any commercial obligation.
How exactly Plug&Charge works and the importance of the certificates in the system has been elaborated upon in our more detailed report here. In short: With the certificates stored both in the vehicle, and the charging station and the connection to the ‘Hubject Root Pool’, charging processes can be started and billed automatically.
Interested market participants can now experience and try out precisely these authorisation processes with the new tool. “This includes creating contracts certificates, ISO 15118 Contract data, accessing the Hubject Root Pool, requesting contract installations and issuing EVSE-Leaf certificates,” explains Steffen Rhinow, Head of Plug&Charge. “It enables CPOs and MOs to implement Plug&Charge independently from Hubject existing Plug&Charge based implementation.”
In addition to eliminating the need for manual authorisation via app or RFID-based charging card, Hubject cites Plug&Charge’s higher level of data protection. RFID signatures can be intercepted relatively easily – this could effectively create a copy that the charging station would not be able to distinguish from the original when starting a charging process. This should not be possible with direct and encrypted communication between the vehicle and the charging infrastructure.
“One of our priorities is to help turn the market accessible for all players. That’s the only way we can achieve the common goal of mass EV adoption, resulting in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions,” says Hubject CEO Christian Hahn. “But mass adoption of EVs would not be feasible unless every EV driver has an easy and secure way to charge the vehicle. To accelerate this process, we decided to share our lessons learned and experiences by launching the Open Plug&Charge Testing system.”
Plug&Charge was developed as an industry project jointly by charging point operators (CPO), roaming network operators, charging network providers (EMP), charging point manufacturers and car manufacturers as an open system. With the certificate system, the partners can authenticate each other – if someone new comes on board, they can build on this system and add their certificates. The matching takes place via the certificate pool created at Hubject. Here it is important to note that this does not require a connection to Hubject’s intercharge roaming platform, only a connection to the certificate pool and the ‘PKI Root’ at Hubject.
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