EV charging firm Paua has trialled a plug & charge solution designed to work with all cars and chargepoints.
While plug & charge capabilities have been demonstrated elsewhere including on Fastned and GRIDSERVE’s networks, Paua is claiming it can enable this for all modern electric cars and public chargepoints without relying on standards such as ISO15118 or closed ecosystems.
Plug & charge means there is no need for apps, charge cards or admin to begin a charge. This would help to tackle the issue of interoperability, an oft-cited barrier to the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs).
The solution does, however, require some pre-registration from the driver. It works based on a proprietary algorithm developed by the company using funding from the Transport Technology Research and Innovation Grant (T-TRIG) delivered by the Connected Places Catapult and funded by the Department for Transport.
Paua demonstrated the solution at a Mer EV fast AC charger in Reading with a Renault Zoe, having received funding from the Department for Transport. This follows the company signing a roaming deal with Mer in June.
André Pinho, chief technical officer at Paua, said: “We have designed this to work with the most popular electric cars on the roads today and it will work on a kerbside 7kW charger or a 150kW rapid charger. This is the future of EV charging.”
Paua is currently also involved in the development of a Home & Roam charging solution as part of collaboration between GenGame and Evergreen Energy.
The solution is being designed to meet the home and public charging needs of EV drivers, enabling them to smart charge their EV at home for the lowest prices and easily access public charging via a single app.
