Home/EV Charging & RFID Glossary

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 Classic 1K / 4K: First-generation contactless chip using the proprietary CRYPTO1 cipher and 4-byte UIDs. No longer recommended for new EV charging deployments.; Still produced in volume for hospitality keycards and access control, but inexpensive consumer tools can clone Classic credentials in seconds. The EV charging industry has shifted to Ultralight EV1 and DESFire for new credentials.
MIFARE Ultralight EV1: Mid-tier contactless chip family with 7-byte UIDs and 32-bit password authentication. The most common chip for general-purpose EV charging cards in 2026.; Sits between Classic and DESFire on cost, speed, and security. Fast authentication keeps the tap-to-charge experience snappy; the 7-byte UID matches what Hubject and modern roaming hubs expect.
MIFARE DESFire EV2 / EV3: NXP's high-security contactless chip family with AES-128 encryption and mutual authentication. The standard for high-value EV charging cards and roaming credentials.; Replaces the now-broken MIFARE Classic for security-sensitive deployments. 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 →