CharIN Testival & Conference NORTH AMERICA 2024 – Lincoln Electric

With almost 60 million electric vehicles (EVs) expected on the road by the end of 2024, seamless communication, integration, and interoperability between OEMs and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) providers is crucial to reduce charging anxiety and promote EV adoption. At the forefront of fostering industry-wide collaboration is CharIN, the leading international industry association promoting EV charging standards and interoperability, whose 2024 North American Testival and Conference gathered 415 participants in mid-June to test vehicles and equipment in real-life scenarios.

As part of a global event series presented by CharIN, the conference and Testival was hosted by Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, Ohio and was the largest held to date, with 22 vehicle platforms and 23 EVSEs working together to enhance performance and interoperability between vehicles and charging equipment.

“It's a privilege to collaborate with CharIN once again and welcome back the North American Testival to Lincoln Electric. CharIN events like this, focused on ensuring robust interoperability, are crucial for the industry's growth and ultimately, for instilling consumer confidence. This ongoing partnership underscores our shared dedication to shaping the future of mobility with cutting-edge solutions that make EV ownership more convenient, accessible, and secure.”

Steve Sumner, Vice President of Corporate Innovation at Lincoln Electric

Testivals provide an invaluable opportunity for the global EV and charging industry to test equipment interoperability. Highlights of the 2024 Testival and Conference included the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation showcasing the EVerest project, along with Seamless Retry, Remote Test Harness, and, most notably, Prescribed Testing demonstrations by ChargeX Consortium, a collaborative effort between Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“A moderation team of 14 members from the ChargeX Consortium led and facilitated an optional prescribed testing program at the June 2024 CharIN Testival. Twenty-two testers opted-in to the program, reserving 30 minutes of each testing slot to follow test procedures with defined pass criteria. Being the firstever CharIN Testival with optional prescribed testing, the ChargeX team gathered lots of valuable feedback and insight from testers which will be used to create a public report on the results of the testing, and to improve future prescribed testing efforts.”

Sam Thurston, Testing Task Force Lead of the ChargeX Consortium

The Testival also saw the testing of the inaugural set of charging equipment products integrated with the ISO 15118-20 protocol. ISO 15118 streamlines the charging experience with innovations like Plug & Charge, enabling EV owners to connect their vehicles directly to compatible charging stations without manual authentication. This enhances ease of use and convenience while safeguarding user information. Hubject, a global leader in Plug & Charge technology deployments, led the first end-to-end Plug & Charge testing at the June Testival. End-to-end testing was made available to all participants and included all the necessary backend systems, infrastructure, and technical experts to test Plug & Charge interoperability under real-world conditions.

“Going forward, end-to-end testing will be critical if we are to provide a reliable and positive charging experience for EV drivers. Hubject is excited to collaborate with CharIN and provide this capability at future Testivals and test events.”

Trishan Peruma, Hubject North American CEO

Additionally, this year's event showcased successful multi-PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) testing. This is crucial for automotive manufacturers to verify vehicle compatibility across various charging stations by ensuring secure communication through encryption protocols and security certifications. For the first time, online PKI testing linked charging stations directly to the backend; prior tests were limited to offline PKI, focusing only on vehicle-station interactions.

This shift to online PKI brings testing closer to real-world scenarios and enables comprehensive end-to-end evaluations.

“Interoperability is key to everything we do at CharIN. If you look at what we're doing at the Testival today, we're not just testing interoperability between the vehicle and the charger; we're also looking at end-to-end interoperability, including the chargepoint management system-tracing all the steps from the vehicle to the charger tothe cloud to the consumer-validating the whole chain that allows us to deliver better service. That is an important step because we must create a more positive charging experience that encourages stronger consumer adoption of electric vehicles."

Oleg Logvinov, Chair of CharIN North America and President and CEO of IoTecha Corp

The June event in Cleveland was the seventh CharIN testing event held in North America since 2018, and the next testing event in North America is planned for fall on the West Coast.

"The Testival began as a way to unite engineers in the pursuit of establishing universal standards for electric vehicle charging. Our goal was and remains to cultivate a collaborative environment where stakeholders from across the e-mobility sector could come together to exchange knowledge and collectively enhance the electric vehicle ownership and charging experience."

Claas Bracklo, Chairman of the Executive Board of CharIN