Electrify America and Chargepoint announce interoperability agreement

If you’re an

EV

driver, you’ve probably got apps and/or cards for multiple charging networks. It’s part of life if you charge in public with much frequency. One of those accounts is probably with

Chargepoint

. Perhaps you have a membership with the rapidly expanding

Electrify America

network, too. Pretty soon, though, you’ll only need one or the other, as

Electrify America and Chargepoint have announced an interoperability agreement

, meaning if you’re a member of one, you can charge with the other network.

The partnership, which goes into effect later this year, will combine access to more than 30,000 Level 2 and DC fast chargers. While this may not be super important to current EV drivers, who very well might already be using both networks individually, it simplifies things quite a bit for new adopters to have two of the country’s largest networks working together.

“Partnerships like this make transitioning to electric drive easier than continuing to use fossil fuels,” said Chargepoint President and CEO Pasquale Romano. “Our agreement is another example of cross-industry collaboration and underscores the importance of working together to support this transformation of mobility.”

For Electrify America, this is a step toward

its goal

of making the charging experience completely seamless. One day, the company hopes to eliminate the need to use a card or app at the plug, allowing a driver to simply plug the vehicle into any public charger, and have the vehicle and network communicate with one another for validation and payment. That technology is called “Plug & Charge,” but also has the standard designation of ISO 15118. Electrify America is also working to make charging faster, future-proofing its network for vehicles capable of 350-kW charging speeds (like the

Porsche Taycan

, for instance). Electrify America and other networks are continually working to expand their networks to make longer trips more feasible for EV drivers.

Electrify America says it is seeking to create similar partnerships with other networks (may we suggest EVgo?). Now, if only grocery stores and other retailers could get on board, we could remove some of

those

cards from our wallets.