No card, less hassle. The Kia EV9 is joining the list of models compatible with Plug&Charge. The convenience automatically recognizes the car through its VIN and facilitates the charging and billing. After the EV9, more electric Kia models will join the program.

For EV9, Plug&Charge will be available from the start, and for the other EVs, Kia will roll out the functionality gradually. Automatic recognition is the next step in making charging more seamless, faster, and more comfortable. This identification method integrated into the vehicle allows communication with a compatible charging station, like the supercharger from Ionity.

‘Decreased manual handling’

To secure the transaction and the billing procedure, digital certificates are exchanged between the car and the pillar, conforming to the international standard ISO 15118, which is also responsible for bidirectional charging and defines vehicle-to-grid communication.

“Plug&Charge is a very convenient technology that offers decreased manual handling, resulting in a faster, smoother process for our customers,” says Sjoerd Knipping, Vice President of Marketing and Product at Kia Europe.

In reality, the driver must only connect and debranch the electric vehicle and drive away. There’s no need for an RFID card to start and monitor the process, but owners must first activate Plug&Charge in an app – only a matter of seconds.

Kia partners with mobility provider DCS, service provider Hubject, and several charging providers like Ionity. Parent company Hyundai introduced the feature on the Ioniq 6 two months ago.

The new standard

Whether the automatic charging identification procedure will be genuinely as convenient as the theory mandates remains to be seen. Not all public charging points support the feature, so customers might still need a charging card to bridge their charging needs in lesser-known surroundings. Kia doesn’t provide the details in its release, but the number of attributable energy providers is sometimes limited.

Still, Plug&Charge is set to become the new standard in public charging. Mercedes pioneered the technology in the EQS and EQE and is gradually making it accessible on its plug-in hybrids through an over-the-air update.

BMW has launched it on the all-new i5, its only compatible model. However, the premium brand from Bavaria announced that the other battery-powered models will follow shortly. Volkswagen kickstarted Plug&Charge on the facelifted ID.3, while the Porsche Taycan and the Ford Mustang Mach-E also support it.