Finally, clear signage for charging your electric car

Electric cars have a bright future ahead of them. But there are still quite a few obstacles to overcome before they can definitively replace combustion engines, and one of these is ease of charging. Plug type, charging type (slow, fast, semi-fast), cord type, connector type... Drivers can quickly become confused... and discouraged. Fortunately, standardization is on the way!

A new standard, the voluntary standard NF EN 17186, recently available in the AFNOR collection, recommends that harmonized signage be affixed to charging equipment. Its exact purpose: "Identification of vehicle compatibility—Graphic expression for consumer information on electric vehicle charging." As with gas station pumps dispensing various types of fuel, labeling is essential for clarity! And as with all voluntary standards, it was market players who developed this standard, under the auspices of the European Committee for Standardization.

NF EN 17186: clear and harmonized information

At the end of 2016, CEN invited electromobility stakeholders and car manufacturers to sit down together and come up with this signage, in support of European Directive 2014/94/EU (a mandatory text) on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. Article 7 of this directive requires that "Member States (of the EU) shall ensure that relevant, consistent, and clear information is available regarding motor vehicles that can be regularly refueled with the various fuels placed on the market or recharged at recharging points." Everything must be done to simplify the user's life!

Type 1, type 2, type 3... These standards are used for electrical connectors on the terminal side (T2 or T3) and on the vehicle side (T2/T1 or E/F). But how can you be sure you're making the right connection? Which current? Single-phase or three-phase? And which amperage should you choose? In the interest of simplification, the French type 3 cord has been abandoned in favor of type 2 (T2), which has become the European standard. However, certain specific features remain, such as the T2S, which has safety shutters for use in France in residential areas. Not to mention terminals that do not have a cord, requiring the user to have a specific cable. Given such complexity, clear labeling was essential!

Slow, fast, or semi-fast charging

When we talk about electric cars, we often talk about range. This is indeed a priority for manufacturers, in order to compete with combustion engines. But we mustn't overlook charging speed: if it takes a whole day to fully charge an electric car with a range of 1,000 km, it will never find a buyer! However, fast charging requires special infrastructure! This has led to a wide variety of equipment, which can be confusing for users. "Today, most charging points are private, as a domestic AC outlet is often sufficient to collect the energy needed for 80% of daily use, which does not exceed 50 kilometers. But at the same time, the number of publicly accessible charging stations is increasing (around 25,000 points today in France), some of which offer fast charging. Given this diversity of use cases, it is essential to harmonize the information provided to users, such as the type of interface available at the station or the power available," explains Philippe Dupuy, charging system project manager at Renault and chair of the "carbon-free vehicles and electromobility" coordination group, which developed the NF EN 17186 standard under the auspices of AFNOR and the BNA (Bureau de normalisation automobile) on the French side.

Currently, he continues, the standard adopted by European authorities for charging above 22 kW is CCS Combo 2. Given that a new generation of batteries appears on the market every three to four years, with increasingly efficient power/energy ratios, manufacturers are already looking at innovations that will support very high power charges in the future, enabling vehicles to be "filled up" in a minimum amount of time. Depending on the model, it currently takes between 20 and 30 minutes to charge the battery to 80%," explains Philippe Dupuy.

The NF EN 17186 standard therefore sets out the framework for user information. Labels featuring the pictograms included in the standard will be placed on all electric charging stations and in the immediate vicinity of the connection hatch on cars. They will also be included in the manual for each electric vehicle.