Communication Networks Institute hosts the 5th international Testing Symposium concerning the CCS charging interface in South Korea

For two days, the participating companies either tested their newest DIN 70121 implementations, which have already been introduced onto the market, or future ISO 15118 based control devices. With more than 80 participants (some of them from the USA, Germany, Spain, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Australia), companies from altogether four continents came together. The tests of the interoperation of e-vehicles and charging stations were tightly scheduled in two-hour test slots. Two types of tests can be distinguished: tests on the control device level and tests examining the real interoperation of electric vehicles and charging stations. The test results give the producers valuable conclusions about their own implementation.

The charging interface between the electric vehicle and charging infrastructures reflects a prominent component of electric mobility. As part of the charging process, information about the control system, authentication and as the case may be the pay off of the charging process between e-vehicle and charging infrastructure is shared. In the future, additional usage scenarios, which go further beyond, such as for energy grid-compatible or -supporting charging processes, the charging management of bigger vehicle fleets and the High Power Charging of e-busses of the local public transport, will be addressed. At that, a safe and comfortable charging process shall be guaranteed to the customer at all times. Meanwhile, especially as seen from the perspective of interoperability, the charging interface poses a great challenge, because of its comprehensive underlying cases of application and the resulting technical complexity. Furthermore, the technological processes of coordination for the insurance of the interoperability of developments between vehicle industry and infrastructure providers are increasingly hard to manage in a scaling market environment. On this basis, the Testing Symposium essentially contributes to the charging interface and supports involved companies to review their own implementation in terms of its operability at a place with numerous other implementations from all around the world.

The Communication Networks Institute initiated the innovative test format for the charging interface on a national level in its home city Dortmund at the end of 2014. It was one of the practical outcomes of the BMWi project eNterop, which was conducted in cooperation with BMW, Continental Daimler, Innogy (at that time still called RWE), Siemens, Volkswagen and Fraunhofer IWES/IFF. The event was well received by the participants so that it made its way into the international standardization still in 2014 and is an integral part of the ISO 15118 Joint Working Group Meetings by now. Before the Testing Symposium in Jeju (Korea), international antecedents already took place in Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Dortmund (Germany) and San Diego (USA). Further information, for example in terms of future events, can be found on the Testing Symposium website.

Contacts for queries:

Jens Schmutzler (jens.schmutzler@tu-dortmund.de) and Sven Gröning (sven.groening@tu-dortmund.de)