At CURRENT, a decade of running EV chargers has taught us one thing: if a charger isn’t OCPP-compliant, it’s not good.
Why should hardware manufacturers care about OCPP?
Here’s the definition from Open Charge Alliance, the people behind the OCPP standard: “OCPP is an open protocol that enables communication between electric vehicle (EV) Charging Stations and Charging Station Management Systems. Developed and maintained by OCA, it ensures interoperability across different hardware and software platforms.” That last part is vitally important. OCPP ensures interoperability, making it possible for multiple chargers, from different manufacturers, to co-exist in the same charging system. But why’s that important for charge point manufacturers?
If we don’t work together, we all lose
In the short term, locking your customers into your products by choosing a proprietary, non-standard solution might sound like a great idea. That way, they can’t leave your ecosystem. But here’s the catch: if your chargers can’t work with a customer’s existing chargers, they’ll never even consider you. And if they don’t have an existing charger, you’ll still have to convince them that you have not only the best charger in the world, but the best software solutions, the best API integrations, and that your company will be around to support the chargers indefinitely. That might work if you’re selling to consumers (though it’s an uphill battle), but few, if any, corporate buyers will fall for it. You’d need to invest billions into software development just to compete—only to be blindsided when regulations shift and force you to start over. That’s not a strategy; it’s a gamble—a gamble caused by a software development scheme you never wanted to be involved with in the first place. Clearly, this isn’t a winning proposition. So, what then?
You use the industry standard
That’s right, you adopt the industry standard. For the good of your customers and for the good of your business. To some manufacturers, that might sound scary but take our word for it: we’ve been running chargers for more than ten years. The companies that struggle aren’t the ones who adopted the industry standard—it’s the ones that refused. It’ll drastically reduce your development time; it will make your chargers better in every sense of the word, and it will open doors that would otherwise remain closed. So, how do you make sure your chargers are compliant?
Do it yourself or let us help you out
Honestly? It’s not that hard. You’ll be able to figure it out on your own, and with a bit of internal training, testing, and some upskilling, you’ll get it right. You don’t need to pay us—or anyone else—to help you. But, if you’d like a plug-and-play testing solution based on more than a decade’s worth of experience, we’re here to help. We’ve developed what might be the most practical, hands-on OCPP testing solution around. The product is called CURRENT Professional. Ready to cut your OCPP testing time in half? See how CURRENT Professional makes it easy. You can read all about it here.
