Analysis of compatibility testing scheme for European standard electric vehicle charging piles based on EU AFIR regulations

This article proposes a European standard compatibility testing method based on charging characteristic analysis to address the increased heterogeneity of charging stations in Europe due to the implementation of the EU AFIR regulations. By analyzing the differences in communication protocols, electrical parameters, and protection strategies of charging stations under standards such as DIN70121 and ISO15118, a virtual test bench covering charging performance, reliability, boundary values, adaptability, and fault injection is built to simulate hardware and protocol abnormal scenarios.

This method can simulate the failure scenario of European standard charging, reduce the cost of overseas actual pile testing, and provide technical support for the collaborative optimization of electric vehicle piles for export to Europe.

1 European charging pile market and export compatibility challenges

As one of the regions with the highest penetration rate of electric vehicles in the world, Europe is known for its strict technical requirements and comprehensive testing standards for its charging standard system. Against the backdrop of rapid expansion of charging infrastructure in Europe, while the number of charging stations is increasing, the risk of communication compatibility between vehicle stations is becoming increasingly prominent.

Although the AFIR regulations aim to improve network coverage and enhance charging convenience, forcing countries to accelerate facility construction, there are differences in communication protocols, fault diagnosis, and power scheduling logic among different operators and models of charging stations, which can easily lead to matching obstacles and performance fluctuations such as protocol handshake failure and power scheduling mismatch during vehicle station interaction.

With the expansion of the charging network, ensuring stable and efficient communication and collaboration between massive heterogeneous charging stations and diverse vehicle models has become a key challenge affecting user experience and the reliability of power grid scheduling.

2 Impact of compatibility issues with European standard charging

In the context of the rapid development of the global electric vehicle market, “being able to charge and charging well” has become a key factor affecting user experience and corporate reputation.

The compatibility impact of European standard charging includes multiple technical dimensions such as physical interface compatibility, communication protocol adaptation, charging control logic stability, and safety protection mechanism reliability. Compatibility issues not only reduce user experience, but also may cause serious safety hazards: in practical applications, overvoltage, overcurrent, insulation failure and other problems may lead to equipment damage or even fire; Communication protocol vulnerabilities may be maliciously exploited to interfere with the charging process or steal user data; Extreme environments such as low and high temperatures may also cause charging facilities to malfunction, and compatibility testing should be conducted in advance to verify and avoid such issues.

Statistics show that more than 39% of charging failures in European standard electric vehicles during the charging process are due to compatibility defects. Different manufacturers’ differentiated implementation of technical details (such as the customization of PLC communication parameters in ISO15118) leads to frequent charging problems.

The existing technology has obvious limitations:

• ► Compatibility dimensions such as options and protection logic differences;
• ► Firstly, testing can only be conducted based on certain standard requirements (such as testing only DIN70121 basic communication), which cannot cover compatibility dimensions such as protocol options and protection logic differences;
• ► The second is to verify compatibility through overseas pile road testing, with a cost of over 500000 yuan for single vehicle testing and a cycle of 2-3 months;
• ► Thirdly, testing for European standard vehicle models (such as verifying the reliability of communication messages through simulators based on protocol standards such as DIN70121 and ISO15118) can only cover partial compatibility issues at the communication protocol level, with a single verification project (such as not involving dynamic adjustment of electrical parameters);
• ► Fourthly, the compatibility testing of actual charging stations requires a large number of charging station samples (usually 20+brands need to be tested), and if the charging compatibility issues (such as occasional communication interruptions) cannot be reliably reproduced, it is impossible to re verify or supplement data, relying on probabilistic events, with low targeting, and difficult to meet the market’s rapid verification needs.

Therefore, the verification methods and dimensions of European standard charging compatibility urgently need to be updated.