What is the electric vehicle communication chain?

Short animation about the chain of communication between devices in the EV Charging ecosystem. How do we get your solar panels home energy management system and heat pumps to talk to your electric car without miscommunication?

Did you know that electric cars can talk? For example, they talk to charging stations and, increasingly, to solar panels. But sometimes, they get lost in translation.

As soon as the electric car is plugged in, the conversation starts. The car talks to the charging station which, in turn, talks to the computers of the company managing the charging stations. And these computers talk to those of the energy suppliers and grid operators. What do they talk about? Well, for example, how much electricity is needed, at what charging speed, and what it costs.

And at home, If you’ve got a smart charging station and a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) your car can also talk to your solar panels and heat pump. They discuss things like charging faster when your solar panels are providing plenty of sustainable power, or slower when your heat pump is hard at work.

But as there are so many devices in the chain, they all have to be able to understand each other to avoid miscommunication. By using the same protocols and standards, all devices should communicate in the same language. Each message passes through the entire chain safely and without error. And every device knows what it has to do. At least in theory!

You still have to test whether all works well in practice. Send a message through the entire chain and check for each link whether it is received correctly, understood, and passed on to the next device. If this is not the case, fix the problem so we can avoid miscommunication.

All devices in the smart charging ecosystem should be able to talk to and understand each other, without any problems.

Animation by: Eelke Dekker