Advancing e-roaming in Europe: towards a single “language” for the European charging infrastructure

The E.U. market for electric vehicles (EVs) is growing significantly, but the absence of widely adopted protocols and interoperability standards for charging hinders the development of cross-border EV travel (“e-roaming”). In this paper, we present our vision on what should be the basic functionalities of e-roaming. Furthermore, we describe the best practices of 6 years of e-roaming in the Netherlands, and analyze what can be learned from other sectors that were successful in introducing roaming mechanisms in the past. We translate these into proposed next steps, such as the need for piloting e-roaming on a European level using open standards, such as Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI). We conclude with a proposal for a comparative study of protocols to pave the way for future convergence, and, thus, facilitate a European market for EV products and services.