Minimum requirements: charge 4 cars at the same time, DC 250-920V, continuous power 150kW, display the charging price in USD /kWh, and open data to third-party software free of charge. The national laws and regulations of charging stations in the United States have been issued, which leads China in the universality, interoperability and data sharing of charging stations.

However, this time it is only for passenger cars, and the regulations of truck charging stations have to wait. MCS has not been included in the requirements yet. FHWA said that "this final rule does not exclude the use of MCS MW charging; As the MCS industry standard SAE J3271 has not been finalized, FHWA intends not to modify this final rule to include MCS, so as to avoid restrictions on emerging technologies. "

/Legal background/

On February 15th, 2023, DOT and DOE announced the National Standards and Requirements for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, the minimum standard for electric vehicle charging stations in the United States. On the same day, Tesla decided to open part of its exclusive overcharge station network to other electric vehicles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy are taking actions to make the envisaged national network of electric vehicle charging stations closer to reality. President Biden has set a goal of installing 500,000 electric vehicle chargers nationwide by 2030, and electric vehicles account for at least 50% of new car sales.

The final rule applies to all electric vehicle chargers funded by FHWA, including those funded according to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula.

At present, there is no national standard for the installation, operation or maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations in the United States, and there are huge differences between charging stations in key components (such as operation practice, payment method, site organization, charging price display, charger speed and power) and information about the availability and function of each charging station.

This regulation will enable states to implement federally funded charging station projects in a standardized way in the national electric vehicle charging network, which can be used by all electric vehicles regardless of vehicle brand.

The new standard will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

/Areas covered by regulations/

FHWA formulates the minimum standards and requirements for public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for projects funded by NEVI National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan. Formulate minimum standards and requirements related to the following areas: (1) Installation, operation and maintenance of electric vehicle infrastructure. (2) Interoperability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (3) traffic control equipment and site signs acquired, installed or operated. (4) data submission. (5) Network connection of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

According to the rules proposed by FHWA, these standards will stipulate the minimum number and type of chargers that can support the driver's rapid charging demand, the interoperability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, traffic control equipment and site signs, data submission, network connection of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, information on publicly available charging locations of electric vehicles, pricing, real-time availability and accessibility through mapping applications. States are also required to formulate physical and network security strategies to protect consumers' data, prevent the risk of damaging infrastructure and power grids, and take measures to ensure the interoperability between chargers and networks.

/Specific technical requirements of regulations/

American National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Standards and Requirements

680.100 Purpose

The purpose of this part is to specify the minimum standards and requirements for the projects funded by the NEVI national electric vehicle infrastructure Formula Program, including any EV electric vehicle charging infrastructure project funded by federal funds according to Title 23, United States Code, which is regarded as a project on the federal aid highway.

680.106 Installation, Operation and Maintenance.

(b) Number of charging ports. (1) When including the DCFC located along the designated AFC and designed to serve the designated AFC users, the charging station must have at least four DCFC charging ports connected to the network and be able to charge at least four electric vehicles at the same time. (2) In other locations, the electric vehicle charging station must have at least four network connection (DCFC or AC Level 2 or the combination of DCFC and AC Level 2) charging ports, and can charge at least four electric vehicles at the same time.

(c) connector type. All charging connectors must meet applicable industry standards. Each DCFC charging port must be able to charge any CCS-compliant vehicle, and each DCFC charger port must have at least one permanently connected CCS 1 connector. In addition, only CHAdeMO(CHAdeMO) connectors with permanent connection provided by NEVI fund in fiscal year 2022 can be used. Each AC 2 charging port must have a permanently connected J1772 connector, and must charge vehicles that meet J1772.

(d) Power Level. (1) The DCFC charging port must support the output voltage between 250VDC and 920VDC. The DCFC located along the designated AFC and designed to serve the designated AFC users must have a continuous power transmission rating of at least 150 kW, and provide up to 150 kW of power from each charging port of the charging station at the same time according to the power transmission requirements of EV. As long as each charging port continues to meet the requirements of electric vehicles for power up to 150kW, these corridors serving DCFC charging stations can share power. (2) Each AC 2 charging port must have a continuous power delivery rating of at least 6 kW, and the charging station must be able to provide at least 6 kW for each port on all AC ports at the same time. As long as each charging port continues to meet the EV's demand for up to 6kW of power, AC 2 class chargers can share power and/or participate in the intelligent charging management plan unless EV charging customers agree to accept a lower power level.

(e) availability. The charging station located along the designated alternative fuel corridor and designed to provide services to users must be available and located in a location accessible to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

(f) mode of payment. Unless charging is permanently provided to customers free of charge, the charging station must: (2) no membership is required for use; (3) Do not delay, limit or reduce the power flow of the vehicle based on the payment method or membership; and

(g) equipment certification. States or other direct recipients must ensure that all chargers are certified by the National Accreditation Testing Laboratory of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and that all AC 2 chargers are certified by Energy Star. DCFC and AC 2 chargers shall be certified by the relevant standards of UL electric vehicle charging system equipment.

(h) safety. States or other direct recipients must implement physical and network security strategies consistent with their respective state electric vehicle infrastructure deployment plans to ensure that charging station operations protect consumer data and prevent the risk of damage or destruction to charging infrastructure and power grid. (1) The physical security policy may include the following topics: lighting; Site selection and station design to ensure the line of sight of onlookers; Driver and vehicle safety; Video surveillance; Emergency call box; Fire prevention; Charger lock; And the strategies to prevent tampering and illegal monitoring of payment devices. (2) The network security strategy may include the following topics: user identity and access management; Password flexibility and support for multiple PKI; Monitoring and testing; Incident prevention and handling; Configuration, vulnerability and software update management; Third-party network security testing and certification; And continuity of operation when communication between the charger and the charging network is interrupted.

(i) long-term management. States or other direct recipients must ensure that chargers comply with the provisions of this part for not less than 5 years from the date of initial operation.

(j) Qualified technicians. (k) customer service. States or other direct recipients must ensure that electric vehicle charging customers have a mechanism to report charging infrastructure interruptions, failures and other problems.

(l) customer data privacy. Charging station operators must only collect, process and retain personal information needed to provide charging services to consumers, including completing charging transactions and providing consumers with information on the location of toll stations. For the processing, transmission and storage of cardholder data, the charger and charging network shall conform to the appropriate payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS). Charging station operators must also take reasonable measures to protect consumer data.

(m) Use of project income.

680.108 interoperability.

(a) The charger communicates with the electric vehicle. The charger must conform to ISO 15118-3, and must have hardware capable of implementing ISO 15118-2 and ISO 15118-20. The charger software must conform to ISO 15118-2 and be plug and play. The consistency test of charger software and hardware should follow ISO 15118-4 and ISO 15118-5 respectively. (b) charger-to-charger network communication. The charger must meet the Open Charging Pile Protocol (OCPP)1.6J or higher standard. The charger must comply with OCPP 2.0.1 before [insert date one year after the date of publication of the Federal Register]. (c) charging network to charging network communication. The charging network must be able to communicate with other charging networks according to Open Charging Point Interface (OCPI)2.2.1 before [date one year after the date of publication of the Federal Register]. (d) network switching capability. The charger must be designed to safely switch charging network providers without changing the hardware.

680.112 Data submission.

(a) quarterly data submission. States and other direct recipients must ensure that the following data are submitted quarterly in the manner specified by FHWA. Any published quarterly data will be aggregated and anonymous to protect confidential business information. (1) The following data can be associated with the charging station identifier. This must be the same charging station name or identifier used to identify the charging station in the data provided to the third party in §680.116(c)(1 c) (1); (2) Charging port identifier. This must be the same charging port identifier used to identify the charging port in the data provided to the third party in 680.116 (c) (8) (ii); (3) the start time and end time of the charging session and any error codes related to the unsuccessful charging session (by port); (4) The amount of electricity (kWh) allocated to the electric vehicle by port in each charging period; (5) Peak session power (kW) of the port; (6) the payment method associated with each billing session; (7) The normal operation time, T_ downtime and T_ exclusion time of the charging station port calculated according to the formula in 680.116 (b) (the first 3 months); (8) Duration of each shutdown (minutes).

(b) Annual data submission. (c) One-time data submission. This paragraph is only applicable to the NEVI Formula Project and the projects for electric vehicle charging stations granted according to Section 151(f) of Title 23 of the United States Code, which are located near the designated users of automobile fuel cells and are designed to provide services for them. Starting from 2024, States and other direct recipients must ensure that the following data are collected and submitted once for each charging station on or before March 1 of each year in the manner specified by FHWA. Any public disposable data will be aggregated and anonymous to protect confidential business information. (1) The name and address of the private entity involved in the operation and maintenance of the charger. (2) The installed capacity of distributed energy (kW or kWh, as the case may be) of each charging station by type (such as fixed battery, solar energy, etc.); And (3) charging station real estate purchase fee, charging equipment purchase and installation fee, and distributed energy purchase and installation fee; And (4) the total power grid connection and upgrade cost paid to the power company as part of the project, which is divided into: (i) the total power distribution and system cost, such as the extension of overhead/underground lines and the upgrade from single-phase lines to three-phase lines; And 138(ii) the total service cost, including, for example, the cost of poles, transformers, meters and service connection equipment.

680.114 Charging network connectivity.

(a) charger-to-charger network communication. (1) The charger must communicate with the charging network through a secure communication method. See 680.108 for more information on OCPP requirements. (2) The charger must be able to receive and implement secure remote software updates, and perform real-time protocol conversion, encryption and decryption, authentication and authorization in communication with the charging network. (3) The charging network must be running, and the charger must support remote charger monitoring, diagnosis, control and intelligent charging management. (4) Chargers and charging networks must safely measure, communicate, store and report the allocated energy and power, the real-time charging port status, the real-time price offered to customers and the normal running time of historical charging ports.

(b) interoperability. See 680.108 for interoperability requirements.

(c) charging network to charging network communication. The charging network must be able to communicate with other charging networks. Electric vehicle drivers use a single identification method to charge at charging stations that are part of multiple charging networks.

(d) Charging network-to-grid communication. The charging network must be able to communicate securely with power companies, other energy suppliers or local energy management systems.

(e) the network connection is interrupted. If the communication with the charging network is temporarily interrupted, the charger must maintain normal operation, so as to start and complete the charging session and provide the minimum required power level specified in 680.106 (d).

680.116 Information on the location, pricing, real-time availability and map accessibility of publicly available electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

(a) price communication. (1) Before starting the charging transaction, the charging price must be displayed and based on the charging electricity price in USD/kWh. (2) The charging price displayed and transmitted through the charging network must be the real-time price (that is, the price at that time). The price at the beginning of the session cannot be changed during the session. (3) The price structure must be clearly displayed and explained, including any other expenses except electricity.

(b) Minimum running time. States or other direct recipients must ensure that the average annual uptime of each charging port is greater than that of ninety-seven percent. (1) When the hardware and software of the charging port are online and available or in use, the charging port is regarded as "started" and the charging port successfully distributes power according to the requirements of the lowest power level (see 680.106 (d)). (2) The normal operation time of the charging port must be calculated monthly in the first twelve months. (3) The percentage of normal operation time of the charging port must be calculated by using the following formula: μ=((525600-(T_ shutdown -T_ exclusion)) /525600)X 100, where: provided that the charging station operator can prove that the charging port is operable under other circumstances: the service of power facilities is interrupted, due to vehicle failure, regular maintenance, vandalism or natural disasters. In addition, it does not include the time outside the operation time of the charging station.

(c) third-party data sharing. States or other direct recipients must ensure that the following data fields are provided to third-party software developers free of charge through the application programming interface: (1) unique charging station name or identifier; (2) The address of the property where the charging station is located (street address, city, state and postal code); (3) Decimal geographic coordinates of accurate charging station location; (4) Name of charging station operator; (5) Name of charging network provider; (6) charging station status (operation, under construction, planned or retired); (7) charging station access information: (i) charging station access type (public or commercial vehicles only); (ii) Number of days/time of charging station access (hours of charging station operation); (8) Charging port information: (i) Number of charging ports; (ii) a unique port identifier; (iii) the type of connector provided by port; (iv) Port charging level (DCFC, AC level 2, etc.); (v) Port transmission power (kW); (vi) Through the port (Yes/No), vehicles with trailers can pass (through the gear); (vii) Real-time status of ports defined according to the open charging pile interface 2.2.1; (9) Pricing and payment information: (i) Pricing structure; (ii) The real-time price of charging at each charging port according to the definition of open charging point interface 2.2.1; (iii) Payment methods accepted by the charging station.