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EV Charging & RFID Glossary

Plain-English reference for the protocols, roles, and standards that come up when scoping an EV charging RFID programme — OCPP, OCPI, ISO 15118, the roaming hubs, and the regulations driving 2026 rollout.

Charging protocols

OCPP 1.6— Open Charge Point Protocol 1.6: Open standard application protocol for communication between EV charging stations and a central management system. OCPP 1.6J (JSON over WebSocket) is the de-facto baseline for public charging deployments worldwide.; Authorize, StartTransaction, MeterValues, and StopTransaction are the core messages. RFID cards present an idTag at the charge point; the station relays it to the CSMS for authorization.
OCPP 2.0.1: Current generation of OCPP with smart charging, ISO 15118 hooks, security extensions, and improved device management. Mandatory for many 2026+ rollouts under AFIR.; Backward-compatible with 1.6 for core flows. Adds device security profiles (1–3), transaction-event reporting, and Plug & Charge support.
OCPI— Open Charge Point Interface: Protocol for roaming between e-mobility service providers (eMSPs) and charge point operators (CPOs). Lets one driver's card or app work across multiple networks.; Currently at version 2.2.1, with 3.0 in active development. Hubject and Gireve are the dominant roaming hubs that implement OCPI on top of their own peer-to-peer protocols.
ISO 15118: Vehicle-to-grid communication standard. Enables Plug & Charge: the EV authenticates itself directly to the charging station via the charging cable, no card or app needed.; ISO 15118-2 (current production) defines secure XML-over-PLC communication. ISO 15118-20 adds wireless and bidirectional V2G features.
Plug & Charge— PnC: Authentication flow defined by ISO 15118 where the vehicle proves identity directly to the charging station. No card swipe, no app — driver plugs in and charging starts.; Promised as the RFID killer for years, but real-world rollout is slow. RFID remains essential for vehicles without Plug & Charge support, public driver authentication, and fleet credential management. Most networks run PnC and RFID side by side.
AFIR— Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation: EU regulation effective 2026 mandating ad-hoc payment support, transparent pricing, and OCPI roaming at all new public chargers above 50 kW. Drives RFID + contactless requirements across the EU.
Eichrecht: German calibration law requiring tamper-proof energy measurement and signed metering values at public charge points. Applies to anyone billing per kWh in Germany.; Influences RFID card use: many German networks require the idTag to be cryptographically linked to the signed metering record for legal billing.
CSMS— Charging Station Management System: Cloud backend that manages a fleet of charge points: authorization, billing, roaming, monitoring, firmware. Examples: AMPECO, EV.energy, Driivz, Has·To·Be, ChargeLab.

Roaming & e-mobility ecosystem

CPO— Charge Point Operator: Company that owns and operates charging stations. Earns revenue per kWh or per session. Examples: Allego, Fastned, EVgo, Tesla Supercharger, BP Pulse.
eMSP— e-Mobility Service Provider: Company that issues RFID cards or apps to EV drivers and bills them, regardless of which CPO's network they charge on. Examples: Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, Hubject MSP, Maingau, NewMotion.
Hubject: European roaming hub connecting hundreds of CPOs and eMSPs via the OICP protocol. Lets a card issued by one eMSP work on any CPO connected to Hubject's intercharge network.
Gireve: French-headquartered roaming hub operating across Europe, North America, and Asia. Implements OCPI-based settlement and discovery for cross-network charging.
OICP— Open InterCharge Protocol: Hubject's proprietary roaming protocol. Translated to and from OCPI for interoperability with non-Hubject hubs.
idTag: The string sent by an OCPP charging station to the CSMS when a card is presented. Typically derived from the RFID card's UID, optionally with a prefix or padding.; Format matters: many CSMS platforms expect a specific encoding (decimal vs hex, length, padding). ChargeRFID pre-encodes idTags to match your CSMS expectations.
eMAID— e-Mobility Account Identifier: Globally unique identifier for a contract between a driver and an eMSP. Used in ISO 15118 Plug & Charge to bind the vehicle to the right billing account.
EVCO-ID: Older equivalent of eMAID — identifies the contract holder in OCPI-based roaming flows. Format: country code + provider ID + sequence.
EVSE— Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment: Industry term for a charging station or individual charging connector. One charging cabinet may contain multiple EVSEs.

Charging hardware

AC Charging— Level 1 / Level 2: Alternating-current charging where the on-board car charger does the AC-to-DC conversion. Power levels typically 3.7 kW (Level 1, ~16 A) to 22 kW (Level 2, 32 A three-phase).; Dominant at home, workplaces, and destination charging. The slower charge speed makes long dwell times necessary, which is why RFID + reservation systems matter at AC chargers.
DC Fast Charging— Level 3, Rapid charging: Direct-current charging that bypasses the car's on-board charger, delivering 50–350+ kW directly to the battery. Used at highway corridors and urban hubs.; Premium pricing and shorter sessions; per-session authentication via RFID, app, or Plug & Charge is critical. Some networks use AutoCharge (vehicle MAC address) as a transitional Plug & Charge alternative.
CCS— Combined Charging System: Dominant DC fast-charging connector standard in Europe (CCS Combo 2) and North America (CCS Combo 1). Supports up to 350 kW today, 500 kW in the spec.
CHAdeMO: DC fast-charging connector standard originating in Japan. Once widespread, now declining outside Japan as CCS and NACS dominate Western markets.
Type 2— Mennekes, IEC 62196-2: European AC charging connector. Standard for public AC chargers across the EU and increasingly in the UK and other markets.
NACS— North American Charging Standard, Tesla connector: Tesla-originated connector, now adopted by most US automakers and emerging as the North American DC standard alongside CCS.

RFID technology

ISO 14443A: International standard for 13.56 MHz contactless smart cards. The dominant standard for RFID charging cards.; All MIFARE DESFire, NTAG, and compatible chips run on ISO 14443A. Read range 0–10 cm.
NFC— Near Field Communication: Short-range (≤4 cm) wireless protocol that extends ISO 14443. Enables tap-to-pay style flows with cards or smartphones.
MIFARE DESFire EV2 / EV3: NXP's high-security contactless chip family with AES-128 encryption and mutual authentication. The standard for new RFID charging cards.; Replaces the now-broken MIFARE Classic. Each card holds multiple applications (authentication, billing, loyalty) with separate cryptographic keys.
AES-128: Advanced Encryption Standard with 128-bit key — the encryption used in MIFARE DESFire EV2/EV3.; Combined with mutual authentication, AES-128 makes each card tap a cryptographically signed transaction. Cloning resistance is cryptographic, not on obscurity.
UID— Unique Identifier: Factory-set serial number on every RFID chip. Returned in the clear before authentication. Often used to derive the idTag sent over OCPP.
Anti-cloning: Cryptographic property of AES-128 chips: each card tap involves a fresh challenge-response, so a captured exchange cannot be replayed by a cloned card.
AutoCharge: Network-specific transitional alternative to ISO 15118 Plug & Charge. Uses the vehicle's MAC address (visible during charging handshake) as identity. Less secure than ISO 15118 but works without certificate provisioning.

Industry roles & billing

Fleet Operator: Owner of a fleet of EVs — utilities, last-mile delivery, ride-share, taxi, corporate company-car programmes. Buys RFID cards in bulk and assigns them per driver or vehicle.
MSP / EMP— Mobility Service Provider / E-Mobility Provider: Umbrella term for any party that issues credentials and bills EV drivers. Includes eMSPs as well as utility-led mobility offerings.
Per-kWh Billing: Charging session billed by energy delivered (€ or $ per kWh). The dominant model in Europe and many US states. Often requires calibration-law-compliant meters (see Eichrecht).
Per-session / Time-Based Billing: Charging session billed flat per session or per minute. Less common at AC, sometimes used at DC fast-charging to discourage parking after charging completes.

Materials & sustainability

Recycled PVC: Post-consumer or post-industrial PVC recovered and re-extruded into card stock. Same durability and chip-embedding properties as virgin PVC, lower carbon footprint.
PLA / Bio Cards— Polylactic acid, biodegradable plastic: Plant-derived biodegradable plastic used as a card body alternative to PVC. Composts in industrial facilities. Same RFID performance.
FSC-Certified Wood— Forest Stewardship Council: Wood from certified sustainable forestry. Used for premium charging card bodies — typically walnut, bamboo, or beech. Laser-engraved for branding.

Standards & certifications

ISO 9001: International quality management standard. ISO 9001-certified manufacturers follow a documented, audited quality process. ChargeRFID is ISO 9001 certified.
CE Mark: European conformity marking. Required for RFID products sold in the EU/EEA. Indicates compliance with applicable health, safety, and environmental directives.
MOQ— Minimum Order Quantity: Smallest quantity a manufacturer will produce in a single run. ChargeRFID's standard MOQ is 500 cards.

Picking the right charging card

For new deployments in 2026, the practical short list is:

OCPP RFID cards — when you need cards that work out of the box with any OCPP-conformant charge point, with custom idTag encoding for your CSMS.
Fleet charging cards — multi-network roaming via Hubject/Gireve, per-driver/per-vehicle encoding for utility, delivery, and corporate EV fleets.
Eco materials — recycled PVC, PLA bio, or FSC-certified wood when the brand promise is sustainability.

OCPP RFID cards →Fleet charging cards →All products →