Joint Office of Energy & Transportation Supports All with SAE J3400 EV Coupler Recommended Practice | auto connected car news

To make electric vehicle (EV) charging easy and reliable, it’s important to have a charging network that is safe and simple to use. This starts with having clear rules for the technology used. That’s why the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation worked with the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) to create a guide called the J3400 EV Coupler Recommended Practice.

The J3400 standard helps ensure any vehicle can work with any charger, and federal minimum standards for network interoperability open the way for any charging hardware to work on a different software network.

From August 2023 to July 2024, around 1,000 new public chargers were added every week, thanks to support from the federal government, states, and private companies. The J3400 standard helps ensure that charging stations are convenient for long trips and safe for everyone.

The Joint Office also focuses on making sure charging technology is strong and secure. They work with groups like the ChargeX Consortium, which recently shared tips to improve the safety of charging adapters.

The Joint Office created new guidelines to help apps show real-time charger information. They also established key points that define a good EV charging experience, focusing on how easy it is to find, access, and use chargers.

As the national charging network expands and more EVs are sold, drivers need to easily find working and available chargers. To support this effort, the Joint Office created “Standardized Protocol for Real-Time APIs as Required by Title 23 CFR 680.116(c),” which has recommendations for deploying an application programming interface (API) that allows third party software developers to aggregate charging station data and provide mapping services and other applications to drivers.

What defines a “good” EV charging experience? The ChargeX Consortium defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for a quality EV charging experience from the consumer perspective in this report, providing objective benchmarks for charging suppliers and manufacturers. This report identifies based on the six key components: finding a charger, accessing a charger, starting a charge, completing a charge, getting help, and feeling safe and comfortable.

For more updates on their work to improve electric vehicle standards, visit https://driveelectric.gov/.