Guide · E-mobility

ISO 15118 — how car and charging station talk.

Charging without a card or app, securely encrypted and even back into the grid: ISO 15118 defines the communication interface between the vehicle and the charging infrastructure.

Discuss an e-mobility project

What ISO 15118 governs

ISO 15118 (Road vehicles — Vehicle to grid communication interface) defines the communication between an electric vehicle and a charging station — the basis for convenient, safe and intelligent charging.

Plug & Charge

With Plug & Charge, after a one-time registration the vehicle identifies and authenticates itself automatically at the charging station — without a card, app or any further input. Plugging in is enough; authorization runs via the protocol. The connection is secured with TLS (mandatory for Plug & Charge).

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)

The most far-reaching part is bidirectional charging: energy from the vehicle battery can flow back into the grid, the building or the home. This turns electric cars into distributed storage that can cushion load peaks.

Relation to electronics & BMS

Charging communication, power electronics and battery management have to work together — including EMC-compliant design of the switching paths. This interplay is exactly what we develop from a single source.

Frequently asked questions

What is the advantage of Plug & Charge?

No fiddling with charging cards or apps: the vehicle authenticates itself and starts the charging process. Secure, because the communication runs encrypted (TLS).

What does V2G mean in practice?

The vehicle battery can feed energy back — for example to smooth load peaks or to use self-generated power. This places higher demands on the power electronics, the BMS and their EMC.

Sources: ISO 15118 (Wikipedia), ISO 15118 — Plug & Charge & V2G. The valid version of the standard is authoritative.