Electrify America, Hubject want EV charging payments to be as easy as plugging in
Plug&Charge wants the plug to handle all the payment data, no logins or swipe cards necessary.
Imagine this scenario: You need to charge your EV. So, you pull up to a station, open your charging port, plug in the cable and... that's it. Payments, logins, all of that is handled simply by plugging in your car. That's the future Hubject and Electrify America are aiming for.
At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Electrify America and Hubject announced a partnership that will bring Hubject's Plug&Charge technology to more than 2,000 of Electrify America's public EV chargers by the end of the year. Hubject, who developed the tech, is already working to make this happen.
Plug&Charge relies on the ISO 15118 standard, which describes a standard of communication between an electric car and charging equipment. Once the plug is connected, the charger receives encrypted data from the car -- your charging account credentials, stuff like that -- through the cable. The payment processing and everything happens in the background. All the user needs to do is plug in the car. This tech was first announced back in April with Daimler.
The technology doesn't have to be limited to any specific companies, but Hubject also counts BMW Group among its shareholders. Getting people to adapt to new technology is always difficult, but offering a super simple solution like Plug&Charge could very well help folks warm up to electric cars . The charging itself might not be as quick as a trip to the gas station, but handling the payment will soon be much faster.
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