How does phone communicate with charging station?

[Toby]

How does phone communicate with charging station? Does it use cell tech, wifi, blue tooth or game share (whatever that is)? Whenever I search on the Net I just get ads or app promos. No one seems to know how it actually works.

 

[goldbrick]

It probably varies but at least some (and probably most/all) use cell technology. That's just based on personal experience and not any inside knowledge.

 

[MozzoAU]

Can you elaborate on what phone app you are referring to please? Charging apps for public chargers use the mobile network. Home charger connectivity is different.

 

[Toby]

We usually charge our car at home. On occasion we need to charge when away from home. For that we use a Flo card which works well for Flo chargers and those of BC Hydro and a few others. If I had my way every roadside charger would be accessible by the Flo card. We don't have a full featured smart phone and don't want one.

Ever since we have had an EV (now a 2023 Leaf Plus) I have been curious as to how the roadside charging stations interact with the car and with access technology. It seems that each of the suppliers has it's own means of access, usually a phone app. How many apps do you have for your EV? Why isn't there just one? The best system looks to me to be Tesla's in which the car identifies itself to the charger which sends a bill to the correct credit account.

The Flo card works just like tapping your credit card at the super market checkout. Ideally, a credit card should work on roadside charging stations.

If the phone app uses cell technology to access a charger, how does it select the one in front of your car? This would be easier to understand if it used blue tooth.

.

 

[Chad E. Mo]

If the phone app uses cell technology to access a charger, how does it select the one in front of your car?

The charger's identification is displayed on the charger and the user selects the charger from a list.

Apps on my phone:

Blink​

EA​

Shell Recharge​

Red-E​

ChargePoint
EVgo​

Also
Plugshare
ABRP

 

[KazooBruce]

Charge point level 2 chargers are common in my town. I can use my phone or a small RFID tag. I use my phone with the charge point app. But they work the same. I hold the phone to the charger like I would hold the RFID tag. I am sure the flo card is the same. It's the same as contactless payment using a phone or credit card.

We are in the early days of evs. I remember when everyone had different gas cards because not everyone had a general credit card like visa , MasterCard or Diners Club

 

[Toby]

Charge point level 2 chargers are common in my town. I can use my phone or a small RFID tag. I use my phone with the charge point app. But they work the same. I hold the phone to the charger like I would hold the RFID tag. I am sure the flo card is the same. It's the same as contactless payment using a phone or credit card.

We are in the early days of evs. I remember when everyone had different gas cards because not everyone had a general credit card like visa , MasterCard or Diners Club

I had forgotten about all those gas cards. Time flies.

Smart phones are so ubiquitous that users have lost their curiosity. Very few are looking for alternates.

 

[WisJim]

I use PlugShare to find chargers, and ChargeHub to activate the ones in my area. I had been using ChargePoint, but then a few other systems have shown up, and ChargeHub seems to incorporate the ones that I have come across.