The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI, Acting President Yoo Dong-wook), a government-funded research institute under the National Science and Technology Research Council of the Ministry of Science and ICT, has been designated as the world's first global interoperability conformity assessment body for electric vehicles, and it is expected that user inconvenience will be resolved by checking compatibility errors between electric vehicles and chargers.

On the 29th, the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) was designated as a "Global Interoperability Assessment Body for Electric Vehicles" by the international electric vehicle charging consortium CharIN, and held a designation ceremony at its headquarters. Key officials, including KERI Acting President Yoo Dong-wook and CharIN Korea Director Lee Min-jung, attended the ceremony.

CHARIN is an international private technical consortium that promotes the development of international standards for all types of battery-powered electric vehicle charging systems and establishes appropriate testing and certification programs. It currently holds immense influence in the global electric vehicle market, with approximately 216 organizations participating as core members, including major global electric vehicle manufacturers such as Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Volkswagen, and GM, as well as companies related to chargers.

Currently, while the external compatibility of charging infrastructure is being observed in the electric vehicle fast-charging market, users are experiencing significant inconvenience due to numerous errors caused by software interoperability issues related to communication and charging sequences.

This issue arises because, in the still-developing electric vehicle market, numerous automakers (primarily large corporations) and various charger companies (primarily SMEs) are participating in infrastructure development; consequently, differences in standard interpretation among manufacturers are occurring, leading to various on-site problems during rapid charging, such as charging failures, interruptions, and connectors locking after charging.

As the electric vehicle market expands in the future, this situation is highly likely to become an even greater problem, raising the need for an internationally accredited testing and certification body capable of checking interoperability between electric vehicles and chargers in advance and proposing solutions.

Accordingly, Charin recently jointly designated South Korea's KERI and Germany's DEKRA as the world's first 'Electric Vehicle Interoperability Assessment Organizations' after 3 years and 4 months of preparation and qualification verification.

The key requirements for obtaining conformity assessment body qualification from CHARIN are: △infrastructure (possessing electric and power infrastructure capable of testing multiple electric vehicles and chargers at once) △professional personnel (possessing experts capable of contributing to the development of international standards, such as establishing electric vehicle charging systems and testing and certification programs) △possessing diverse testing and certification experience and activities on the international stage.

KERI, an internationally accredited testing and certification body for power equipment, is the world Based on state-of-the-art high-power and high-voltage testing facilities, it possesses a large number of professional personnel, including the team leader (Team Leader Seo Woo-hyun) of the electric vehicle technology division established for the first time in Asia, and has extensive testing and certification experience, such as hosting the 'International Testival (Test+Festival)' since 2018, which brings together leading domestic and international electric vehicle giants and charger manufacturers to examine technical issues, enabling it to become the world's first international conformity assessment body.

The designation of KERI as a conformity assessment body holds great significance for the domestic electric vehicle market. Domestic manufacturers of finished electric vehicles and chargers can now receive testing at KERI without having to pay high transportation and testing fees to overseas testing institutions. The tangible impact is even greater, especially in situations where cross-border travel is difficult, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the presence of domestic testing and certification institutions determines a company's export competitiveness.

According to the KERI Smart Grid Testing Laboratory, if domestic companies undergo conformity testing at the institute, it is estimated that they will save approximately 140 million won (including logistics, testing fees, travel expenses, etc.) per electric vehicle model, while charger manufacturers will save approximately 100 million won per model and shorten the production period by about two months.

"In the early days of the electric vehicle market, everyone focused solely on safety and performance, but now the issue of interoperability between electric vehicles and chargers is a subject of global interest," said Ahn Sang-pil, Head of the Smart Grid Testing Laboratory at KERI. "To proactively respond to the rapidly changing global electric vehicle market and effectively support the exports of domestic manufacturers, it is necessary to establish a system linked to processes accepted worldwide, and the first step in this is the designation of KERI as an electric vehicle interoperability conformity assessment body."

In the future, KERI plans to continuously expand the scope of testing and certification by securing field issues and analyzing data regarding various new electric vehicle charging technologies, such as 'automatic payment technology through certificates in electric vehicles (Plug & Charge)' and 'power grid-linked charging and discharging technology (Vehicle to Grid).' In addition, the goal is to host the '2021 International Electric Vehicle Testival' in the upcoming October, with Chalin representing Asia and domestic and international manufacturers participating, and to lay the foundation for leading international standards related to electric vehicle fast charging.