What is Plug & Charge?

Plug & Charge lets an electric vehicle start a charging session just by being plugged in: the car identifies itself to the charger with a digital certificate, and the session is authorised and billed to the driver’s contract with no app or card. It is defined in ISO 15118.

The vehicle carries a contract certificate issued under a public key infrastructure (PKI). The charger passes it to the management system over OCPP, which checks it and authorises the session. Plug & Charge needs support in the vehicle, the charger, the management system and the driver’s eMSP.

Plug & Charge is more secure than Autocharge, which identifies vehicles by an identifier that can be copied, but it needs more parties to support it.

Also called: Plug and Charge, PnC