Despite the rising sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in recent years, doubts about the long-distance capability of electric vehicles, namely the recharging behaviour and long-distance suitability, still create uncertainty among potential users and interested buyers. The key question they are interested in is: how many kilometres of real range can an EV recharge in a certain amount of time at a fast-charging station?
Today, original equipment manufacturers usually communicate on the maximum recharging speed of their EVs. However, each vehicle can attain these values under very different conditions, depending on the battery technology, cooling system, and battery management system, which can lead to very different recharging times.
Furthermore, this information is not widely available and the way it is measured is not harmonized. UNECE has thus agreed to develop of globally harmonized procedure to measure the fast recharging capability of EVs, and on how to communicate it to owners, consumers, and the general public.
UNECE will develop a common way to measure the fastest recharging power curve of EVs using direct current, to ensure harmonized conditions to perform the measurement and that the test is robust and replicable. A dedicated consumer information package will also be developed to easily assess the recharging speed of EVs.
This methodology is expected to be a voluntary standard to be used by legislators, car manufacturers, recharging stations operators, and other interested actors in the field of EVs.
Having more robust information on recharging capabilities of EVs will enable better predictability for grid operators and might limit the need for large batteries in EVs, if higher recharging speeds are deployed in vehicles together with a dense network of recharging stations.
A recent UNECE analysis of the EV recharging infrastructure across UNECE countries, prepared in cooperation with Eurostat and the International Transport Forum, sheds light on the distribution and accessibility of recharging pools, stations and points, as well as remaining gaps. Along with the planned methodology, this analysis will improve the understanding of how the EV recharging infrastructure and capability are evolving, and what needs to be done to support the growth of electric mobility.
The methodology is expected to be developed by the end of 2025 under the umbrella of the UNECE World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), through a joint effort between the Working Party on Pollution and Energy (GRPE), the Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (WP.5) and the Sustainable Energy Division of UNECE - in the Fast and Smart Charging Cluster.
