4 features that define a good conformance testing suite for EVCCs

As automakers launch electric vehicle models to meet global consumer needs, the need to find a comprehensive conformance testing suite for compliance with diverse charging standards has never been stronger.

The global outlook for the electric vehicle market is complex and driven by regional factors. According to McKinsey’s Electric Vehicle Index (EVI) for 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, Europe continues to see strong growth, while China and the USA have seen a drop in sales due to changes in government policy, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.

“EV growth will pick up again if OEMs and Tier 1s closely monitor each market for changes in infrastructure, regulation and customer preference”

In the longer term however, McKinsey holds that growth will pick up again if OEMs and Tier 1s closely monitor each market for changes in infrastructure, regulation and customer preference.

EVs need to talk to charging stations securely and intelligently as per the protocol followed in each region

As automakers gear up to meet these challenges, making sure new models of EVs are compliant with varying charging standards across the world is a key issue they will need to tackle.
At present, there are three protocols followed globally – Combined Charging Standards (CCS) used widely in Europe and the USA, UCHAdeMO in Japan; and GB/T in China. In India, it is expected that charging standards will be a blend of Bharat Standard for AC charging and CCS (for high voltage), and CHAdeMO (for low voltage) for DC charging.

For a model of EV to operate across these markets, it would need to talk to charging stations securely and intelligently as per the protocol followed in each of these countries.

The Electric Vehicle Charging Controllers (EVCC) would need to make sure that smart charging takes place keeping in mind parameters such as grid load and battery health. Payments have to happen seamlessly, and all this has to take place with minimum user interaction.

EVCC can guarantee the safe and smart charging of EV with the help of rigorous testing suite

A key way OEMs and Tier 1s who develop and integrate Electric Vehicle Charging Controllers (EVCC) can guarantee these tasks are performed in any environment is by bringing on board a rigorous testing suite that can ensure conformance to charging standards in each country.

A comprehensive conformance testing suite for EVCCs must:

  • a) Be Compliant with leading industry-standard tools such as dSPACE
  • b)Include and cover all industry standards
  • c)Have modular architecture which can accommodate additional use cases of the on- board charger, if required by clients
  • d)Last but not least, be able to work on different hardware and software combinations.

Why KPIT?

The conformance testing suite developed by KPIT using industry-standard tools brings with it all these features. In addition to being easy to use, it can be customized without difficulty or extended to include additional test cases apart from the ones mentioned in the standard.
The conformance testing suite is part of KPIT smart charge solutions that offer a customizable and scalable EVCC platform for OEMs and Tier1s.

Customizable and scalable EVCC platform by KPIT for OEMs and Tier1s help accelerate Time to Market and reduce the overall engineering cost by ~ 20%

KPIT smart charge solutions are AUTOSAR compliant, offer ASPICE compliant software development process, and have a reference hardware design ready for the charger. They have ready-to-use application software components SWC_IEC61851, SWC_J1772 and SWC_GBT18487 and key security features such as a software crypto driver and HSM implementation to handle ISO 15118 requirements.
Most importantly, smart charge solutions help accelerate OEM’s and Tier1’s Time to Market and reduce the overall engineering cost by ~ 20%.

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As an end to end partner for software development, integration, and validation for electric powertrain including EVCCs, KPIT brings with it 15+ Years of experience of working with global OEMs and Tier 1s for EV programs. With experts working in powertrain and electric powertrain solutions, 30+ OEMs and Tier 1s as partners and 250+ features developed in production, the company has a strong reputation as a leading technology partner developing solutions for cleaner, greener and global powertrains.

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