What Biden's Proposed EV Charging Standards Mean for You

President Joe Biden's administration announced a proposal for "new standards for [a] national electric vehicle charging network" this morning along with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking outlining the details of the plan. You may be thinking, aren't there already standards for EV charging? Or what does this mean for your new Tesla Model Y or Ford F-150 Lightning? I've combed through the sprawling 82-page document (pdf link) to find out.

What's in the proposal?

The proposal by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are guidelines to be followed when designing and building charging infrastructure and stations funded by the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan announced earlier this year. The proposal sets standards for hardware selection, software, security and maintenance, accessibility and other requirements for states receiving funding over the next five years to build the planned 500,000 chargers in an effort to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles by American drivers.

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Hardware requirements

For you, the electric car driver (or the EV curious), the most important guideline laid out in the proposal is the requirement that all stations built with NEVI funds be built with at least four DC fast charging points. Each of those points should use the Combined Charging System (CCS) plug and supply at least 150 kilowatts of juice each. Picking CCS ensures compatibility for most new EVs built over the last few years from Ford, Chevrolet, Audi, Mercedes, BMW and more; even Nissan has made the flip to the popular standard. Tesla owners will need a CCS adapter, but the automaker has offered such an adapter in Europe for some time. Alternatively, they can continue to use the already robust Supercharger network.

While some EVs — notably the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, the Lucid Air and various Tesla Models — are capable of charging at 250 kW or faster, the DOT reckons that the minimum 150-kW requirement will allow charging times short enough for the majority of new EVs to prevent queues from forming at stations.

The standards proposal allows for the inclusion of one or more CHAdeMO DC fast charging plugs to support EVs still using that connection, including the . It also includes allowances for additional Level 2 AC stations with J1772 plugs capable of up to 6kW charging simultaneously across all AC ports — a move that makes room for slower, overnight charging but also for plug-in hybrid vehicles in the NEVI plan.

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Accessible charging for all

Being funded by taxpayer money comes with the requirement that the charging infrastructure be available to the public. The proposal states that hardware must be accessible by the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on a year-round basis, with minor exceptions for maintenance or repairs.

Also prescribed is a requirement that contactless payment be accepted from all major credit and debit cards with no limitation of access based on membership. Users should be able to roll up, plug in, tap and pay at any federally funded station without having to install an app on their phone. The proposal also includes consumer protections against overcharging or price gouging (with particular attention paid to pricing during natural disasters and emergencies), and the requirement that revenue and profit gained from NEVI-funded stations must be reinvested into Title 23 highway and infrastructure projects.

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However, electrified infrastructure works best when connected, so the proposal also outlines requirements for interoperability with vehicle communication technologies and the adoption of Open Charge Point Protocol standards for communication between the charging station and mapping applications to allow users to get location, real-time availability and pricing information to help pre-plan trips. This early in the game, the proposal is fairly vague on what those open standards will be or even how it will handle displaying pricing in States that "restrict the ability to display charge in dollars-per-kilowatt-hour," with the FHWA leaving room for legislators to work out whether dollar-per-minute, dollar-per-mile or some other display and base should be considered.

Making sure that charging is accessible to all also means that the proposal lays a framework for signage and traffic control devices (such as traffic signs, signals, pavement markings) surrounding NEVI-funded stations and that hardware, software and support systems provide multilingual access and comply with the American Disabilities Act.

Safety and cybersecurity

The proposal comes with guidelines for safety, maintenance and security for NEVI-funded infrastructure projects starting with specific requirements regarding the safe installation of charging hardware and the training and certification of installation and maintenance staff.

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The plan requires a minimum of 97-percent uptime for federally funded charging ports which feels ambitious, but if achieved would build confidence for drivers still on the electrification fence. To reach that goal, FHWA is requiring operators to provide at least five years of maintenance for NEVI stations. According to the proposal, five years is long enough to provide a reasonable lifetime for the equipment, but short enough that States can choose to retire and upgrade charging hardware at the end of the maintenance period if technology progresses... for example, to move to faster charging points or more reliable equipment.

States must also meet requirements for physical security of charging sites, including providing adequate lighting, fire prevention and anti-tampering measures like charger locks. Additionally, the plan includes cybersecurity requirements aimed at the prevention of skimming payment devices, data security and grid security. For the most part, these security and safety protections are left up to individual State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plans.

The proposal also builds in requirements for that customers be able to report outages, malfunctions and issues with charging hardware to help increase uptime and that this reporting structure also comply with the American Disabilities Act.

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What the proposal isn't

The proposal isn't a new physical charging standard or software protocol. It doesn't prescribe a new plug type and actually ensures that the current connection types used by most manufacturers continue to be supported for the next five years. The plan also isn't a requirement for all charging infrastructure. States or private entities are free to build charging stations outside of these guidelines, just not with NEVI funding.

Finally, the proposal is just that: a proposal. It's not set in stone and will require approval by lawmakers before the plan is put into action. Think of this more as one of the first steps on the path to America's electrified highway system.