ANSI Publishes Roadmap of Standards and Codes for Electric Vehicles at Scale

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced the publication of the Roadmap of Standards and Codes for Electric Vehicles at Scale developed by the Institute's Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP). The roadmap's primary focus is on light-duty, on-road plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) that are recharged via a connection to the electrical grid, as well as the supporting charging infrastructure needed to power them. Medium and heavy-duty EVs are also covered, as is wireless charging. A total of 37 standardization gaps are identified with corresponding recommendations across the topical areas of vehicle systems, charging infrastructure, grid integration, and cybersecurity. It is hoped that the roadmap will see broad adoption by the user community and will facilitate a more coherent and coordinated approach to the future development of standards for EVs.

The ANSI EVSP is a cross-sector coordinating body whose objective is to foster coordination and collaboration on standardization matters among public- and private-sector stakeholders to enable the safe, mass deployment of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure in the United States with international coordination, adaptability, and engagement. The ANSI EVSP does not develop standards but serves solely as a forum for facilitating coordination among SDOs and others.

According to the release, some 80 individuals from 130 public- and private-sector organizations supported the roadmap's development, including U.S. federal government agencies and national laboratories, standards developing organizations (SDOs), industry, academia, and others. The document represents the culmination of the EVSP's work over the past year to identify key safety, performance, and interoperability issues for EVs and charging infrastructure, relevant published standards and standards in development, and to assess gaps. A "gap" means no published standard, code, regulation, policy, etc. exists that covers the particular issue in question.

Of the 37 gaps, 14 gaps/recommendations are identified as high priority, 20 as medium priority, and 3 as low priority. In 23 cases, additional pre-standardization research and development (R&D) is needed. The roadmap also provides prioritized timeframes for when standards work should occur, and identifies SDOs or others that may be able to develop the standards or perform the R&D. It is envisioned that a mechanism will be established to assess progress to implement the roadmap's recommendations. The target audience for the roadmap includes vehicle manufacturers; entities that will be installing and operating charging infrastructure; SDOs; U.S. federal, state, and municipal government agencies; electric utilities; and others.

The impetus to develop the roadmap came about following a June 2021 lab call funding opportunity announcement issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), to help advance the Biden Administration's goal for a clean energy future. The lab call's codes and standards pillar sought to "identify and address challenges and barriers to the integration of EVs@Scale charging with the grid created by uncoordinated development of codes and standards and the rapid advances in vehicle and charging technologies." In response, the EVs@Scale lab consortium was formed with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) having the lead for the codes and standards pillar supported by other national labs. The consortium reached out to ANSI, as administrator and coordinator of the U.S. private-sector voluntary standardization system, to facilitate developing a roadmap similar to earlier ones developed by the ANSI EVSP in the 2011-14 timeframe. The EVs@Scale effort supports funding initiatives associated with deploying a nationwide EV charging infrastructure, including the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, which provides $5 billion in federal money to that end. As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Federal Highway Administration was directed to release a set of minimum standards and requirements for the implementation of the NEVI program. The NEVI Final Rule was issued on February 28, 2023, and appropriate references are included in the EVSP roadmap.

"ANSI extends its sincere thanks and congratulations to all the volunteers who participated in the development of the EVSP roadmap, the publication of which is a notable milestone in the broader dialogue around vehicle electrification," said ANSI president and CEO Joe Bhatia. "Bringing public- and private-sector stakeholders together to define standardization needs for emerging technologies and national and global priorities is one of ANSI's strengths."

ANSI's facilitation of the EVSP's roadmap initiative was supported in part by VTO/ANL and UL Standards & Engagement, among others. For more information, visit www.ansi.org/evsp.