Researchers develop new tech that could make future EV charging seamless: 'They will return to a charged vehicle'

An exciting innovation aims to alleviate one of the biggest headaches drivers encounter at public electric vehicle chargers. 

Tech Xplore reported on a new mechanism called "seamless retry" which would automatically restart a failed EV charging session without the driver having to unplug and replug the charging connector manually. 

Drivers might plug their EV into a DC fast charger, leave their vehicle while they wait, only to return and discover their car barely charged or never charged at all because of an error. Currently, even if the user receives a text message or alert, they still have to go back to restart the charging session. 

In their report, researchers with the ChargeX Consortium proposed a new "seamless retry" mechanism to make this restart automatic. This method would prevent the charging session from ending during the first few minutes when there is a communication issue between the vehicle and the charger. Instead, seamless retry invisibly resets the vehicle and EV charger, initiating the new charge without any physical intervention by the user.

"With a seamless retry mechanism in place, an EV driver at a retail center can plug in a charging connector, provide user input data, leave to shop, and feel confident that they will return to a charged vehicle," said Ed Watt, a researcher and lead author of the report, per Tech Xplore.

Ensuring a seamless and user-friendly charging experience for drivers is essential as millions of people switch to electric vehicles and the demand for charging infrastructure grows.

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation brought together key players in the EV industry with national laboratory researchers to form the ChargeX Consortium and address common charging challenges. 

One problem the team identified was reducing user interventions when EV charging fails to initiate. Researchers recommended seamless retry as an intelligently designed solution to boost operational efficiency and improve users' experience.

"Seamless retry directly impacts how the driver interacts with their vehicle and EV charging infrastructure," said Kristi Moriarty, a senior researcher and ChargeX Consortium lead, per Tech Xplore.

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"By resolving a variety of session failure types automatically, we have unlocked a significantly scalable way of improving users' future charging experiences."

With over 200,000 public EV chargers in the United States and more on the way, improving reliability and ensuring that drivers get a successful charge on their first try is key to accelerating the transition to clean energy.

The ChargeX Consortium's report recommends integrating the new seamless retry mechanism into existing DC EV charging standards. The report also says that seamless retry could be applied to some AC EV chargers, but more work has to be done to ensure compatibility.

This clever automation is one of many planned improvements for EV chargers. Drivers can soon expect charging stations to accommodate more EV models, provide faster charging, and even diagnose hardware issues.

With the introduction of seamless retry, we can add improved reliability to that list.

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