EV Charger Certification to Prevent Manipulation of Charging Fees

E-Mart’s electric vehicle charging station in Gangneung on South Korea’s east coast. (image: E-Mart Inc.)

SEOUL, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Chargers for electric vehicles (EV) will now be required to acquire certification for a legal meter in order to prevent manipulation of the charging fees.

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards announced that it will set the standards for the certification to ensure that EV chargers will be approved by the government and distributed throughout South Korea.

The government passed new legislation on EV chargers on Tuesday, which will take effect in 2020.

Once an EV charger acquires certification for a legal meter, it will be formally approved and sealed in order to prevent manipulation of the charging fees.

Thus far, EV chargers have been using agency-approved meters to charge fees.

However, as an increasing number of chargers came in various shapes and sizes, many of them could not use the agency-approved meters.

Consequently, many EV chargers were left exposed to the possibility of fee manipulation and related consumer complaints as they depended solely on the discretion of the service provider for the metering.

The new legislation will prevent this by enabling Korea Electric Power Corporation to provide reliable charging information to consumers through formally approved EV chargers.

Drivers will now be able to engage in safer and more reliable transactions.

EV charger manufacturers will now be able to conduct performance assessments which can be used for quality control and development of new chargers.

Currently, there are 42,000 EV chargers installed throughout South Korea. As the country expects to have more than 200,000 EVs by next year, the number of chargers will continue to expand.

Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)