OCPI Protocol - Open Charge Point Interface’s Post

Back from Korea where the Electric Vehicle Symposium 37 has taken place! On behalf of the EVRoaming Foundation, I joined EVS37 with the goal to discuss and support open roaming for EV charging with companies and governments in Asia-Pacific. We also had a contribution for the academic programme, focusing on our work for optimizing tariff structures and improving price transparency (let me know if you are interested). First of all: the hospitality was absolutely fantastic. A very well organized event, with high standards and an interesting programme. And as for the Korean culture: a great country, helpful people, very safe (even in 25M Seoul!) and very well organized. Recommended! As for eMobility development: Korea already has 550k BEV on the road, with some 226k publicly accessible chargers. However, most of the BEV are commercial fleets, little private uptake. Always the question: is that an issue? do we really want a lot of private vehicles in a metropolitan area such as Seoul? or better: rely on (excellent) electric public transport and electric taxis.... Also, little interaction between CPO's and few developments regarding eMSP's. There is a lot to be gained here, as this country with 50M people will further grow, especially with Korean Hyundai Motor Company (현대자동차) and Kia Worldwide as leading BEV manufacturers. We have seen this in other Asian countries as well (Thailand, Malaysia, Japan): a good uptake in BEV, but limited development of an overarching market model and diverse. business models for operators and service providers beyond kWh sales. The potential is great in Asia, as is the technical expertise and know-how. With the EVRoaming Foundation we aim to support this development. With the open roaming protocol #OCPI as a fundament for an open market for EV charging. And with our working groups, community and expertise, to add knowledge and insights to the discussion. We would love to see more Asia-Pacific companies join the Foundation, be part of this community and support EV growth! Thanks to Laurens Wiersma for joining as the regional manager for the EVRoaming Foundation from Bali; it will give us the opportunity to be present at regional events and organize workshops. Thanks to all the current (and future!) EVRoaming members for the fruitful discussions! Chantakorn David Gridwitchayayarkarn (EVAT Thailand) Paweł Małkowiak (Solidstudio), yoon-chang choi (KTC), Naoki Okawa and Yuya Okada (Plugo Japan), Jean-Marc Rives and Eric Plaquet (Gireve), Ted Dongyeol Shin and Youngman Cho (EVAR), Björn Albertsson (Metergram) and many others! Finally: a great thanks to Netherlands Enterprise Agency to have us at the Holland Pavilion! And PS: Yes we did do the Karaoke, and it was fantastic 😍, and we spent a few days afterwards to enjoy this beautiful country!