A coalition of major businesses, including Amazon, Siemens, DHL and Uber, sent a letter to officials from the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and General Services Administration calling for programs and standards that ensure interoperability and open access at publicly funded electric vehicle charging stations.

As the letter notes, such standards will be critical to accelerate a rapid transition to electric vehicles, and will be particularly important for companies that operate large fleets.

The recently-signed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is allocating $7.5 billion to building out a national network of electric vehicle chargers.

The letter is on behalf of the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, the 28 members of which together represent more than $1 trillion in annual revenue and collectively own, lease, or operate more than one million fleet or networked vehicles in the US.

We are writing to express our support for strong standards for consumer-facing and systems management interoperability for publicly funded electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. We share a common goal of electrifying our fleets and networks, and we write to emphasize the need for widespread open charging standards that would rapidly accelerate zero emission vehicle deployment in the US through enhanced accessibility.

… As the agencies tasked with building the Administration’s vision of a national network of EV charging infrastructure and an all-electric federal fleet, we urge you to develop public charging infrastructure funding programs and plans that incorporate Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI, or a similar standard). OCPP and standards such as OCPI are critical in enabling EV drivers to freely utilize public charge points while stimulating competition in the marketplace and growing the EV market as a whole.

… Corporate EV Alliance members represent a wide variety of industries and operate under diverse use cases. Publicly available infrastructure with open charging standards such as OCPP and standards that enable roaming like OCPI, provide fleets with much-needed charging flexibility and allows fleet operators to deploy a greater number of EVs on more diverse routes. Similarly, while many fleet vehicles are able to charge at home or at a fleet depot, public charging stations with open charging access located in key areas such as along highway corridors are necessary to help reduce range-anxiety among EV drivers and enable electrified long-distance travel. Just as importantly, open charging standards significantly reduce the risk of technology obsolescence for fleet operators as they ensure forwards and backwards compatibility between EV models and charging infrastructure.

— Corporate EV Alliance letter

The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, founded by Ceres in 2020, is a collaborative group of companies focused on accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles. The concepts of interoperability and open access are a key component of the Alliance’s principles, designed as a roadmap for policymakers, regulators, and vehicle manufacturers, providing steps they can take to accelerate commercial electric vehicle deployment in the United States.