Complete sockets of an EV charging station

[sideeffect42]

General

Affected tag(s) to be modified/added: socket Question asked: Which sockets does this charging station have (all charging points combined)?

Checklist

Checklist for quest suggestions (see guidelines):

• [x] 🚧 To be added tag is established and has a useful purpose as an EV driver the locations of charging stations are not worth much if the charging station does not have the appropriate socket for my vehicle, e.g. some electric motocycles or small electric cars can only charge using household sockets while larger vehicles use "special" EV charging connectors. In general a charging station without the matching socket is as useful to an EV driver as a filling station only serving petrol is to a driver of a diesel car :-).
• [x] 🤔 Any answer the user can give must have an equivalent tagging (Quest should not reappear to other users when solved by one)
• [x] 🐿️ Easily answerable by any pedestrian from the outside but a survey is necessary
• [x] 💤 Not an overwhelming percentage of quests have the same answer (No spam)
• [x] 🕓 Applies to a reasonable number of map data (Worth the effort)

Ideas for implementation

Element selection: Any amenity:charging_station which has no sockets or where the number of sockets combined is less than the station's capacity.

While a charging station can have more sockets available than parking spaces, the other way around does not make much sense :-)

Proposed UI:

A list of connectors (with count and maximum charging power). The connector types could be visualised using pictures as it done e.g. for street surfaces.

The maximum charging power is usually printed on the charge point and in most cases voltage/current can be deduced from it, e.g.:

• Type 2 socket with max. 22 kW: 400 V, up to 32 A;
• Type 2 socket with max. 11 kW: 400 V, up to 16 A;
• Type 2 socket with max. 43 kW: 400 V, up to 63 A;
• Type 2 socket with max. 7.2 kW: 230 V, up to 32 A;
• Type 2 socket with max. 3.6 kW: 230 V, up to 16 A;
• CCS socket with max. 50 kW: 400 V, up to 125 A;
• CCS socket with max. 150 kW: 400 V, up to 350 A;
• CCS socket with max. 350 kW: 1000 V, up to 350 A.

(However, I don't know how much the voltage/current matters for DC charging (i.e. CCS), because AFAIK when DC charging the EV's battery is connected directly to the charger which will then use the appropriate voltage and current required to charge the battery.)

[FloEdelmann]

See https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/903#issuecomment-1281157353

[sideeffect42]

See #903 (comment)

So what we need is a YAML file with the list of sockets used in which countries.

The types of sockets which can/should be mapped in OSM are described in the wiki and contain all common socket types so that 99% of EV charging stations should be "completable".

By EV charging stations I'm talking about cars, trucks, and larger motocycles; trying to map e-bike recharging stations would be a whole other story since there is no standardisation there at all.

There are some socket types in the OSM wiki which are not used for EV charging (like USB :smile:), so I would limit the list to the socket types which should suffice to map 99% of all charging stations and would suggest to add an option ("has another special socket" or "is not for recharging EVs" which creates an OSM note for somebody with specialised knowledge to map correctly).

Should I try to compile a YAML with countries and sockets used? Would this help in getting this quest to get further?

[westnordost]

Should I try to compile a YAML with countries and sockets used? Would this help in getting this quest to get further?

Yes, absolutely. Also, looking at the socket wiki page, it is really confusing because as you say, sockets for EV, e-bike and "other" (USB-C, really?) charging are all listed in the same table. It would make sense to bring some order in there, too. (But of course, not required for a quest in this app to be realized).

Also, since you bring up to exclude charging stations for anything else than cars, I wonder if it would be considered incorrect information not to add socket:schuko=1 to a EV charging station that also has a standard plug for e-bike / e-scooter charging.

[georg-d]

Since most comments of #903, a ground breaking change happened: I learned that since 3/2021, charging points + cars + cables in European Union and European Economic Area carry a symbol "letter on hexagon" to visuablize compatibility. These symbols are well-defined, have standardized appearance, are issued by a relevant authority (CEN), have growing relevance (AFAIK all new products in a whole continent must carry it), have a very simple shape (so are easy to visualize in SC), it's a well-defined list, the list length of 9 allows to re-use existing SC's standard answers GUI look & feel, the symbols are a very easy and reliable way to tell apart different socket types – especially for mappers like me, so not being familiar with electric vehicles and not having practical experience with the plugs – even if they look extremely similar like Type 2 (GB/T 20234.2) and Type 2 (DE, UK). First source of information on these symbols https://www.fuel-identifiers.eu/

As a first idea draft: A quest, asking something like "Which symbol(s) appear(s) on the charging point/cable? " (the ref is to make it clear which point we're talking of, similar to quest "levels of a house" showing house number), for answer a multi-selection GUI (like what material recycle containers accept) showing all 9 defined icons and additionaly "Other icon" (creating a note?) + "No icon" (similar to quest asking for bridge weight sign). Of course, we may extend this any time, e.g. by swiping, users may toggle between the symbols and the plug schemes which we talked of so far.

What do you think?

[matkoniecz]

Sounds great!

AFAIK all new products in a whole continent must carry it

1) Note "new". Are old ones obligated to get such branding?

2) Is it obligatory to be prominently visible on operational chargers?

3) Is it including say Russia and UK and Switzerland?

symbol(s)

What is their license? Do you need to pay/license/apply for permission to use them? Or are simple enough to not qualify for copyright? (site is not loading for me)

[georg-d]

1 no, old products are not required to be retro-fitted, so how widespread the symbols are is mostly reflecting the market share of older and newer products at a given point in time

2 yes, to my understanding of the descriptions and what I saw in recent days

3

• all EU member states
• EEA countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway)
• North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey
• Russia is not mentioned in what I did read. By "whole continent" I was referring to the political units – I doubt the geographically European part of Russia will have different rules than the Asian part. Maybe someone knowing Russia could provide information?
• About UK, the leaflet tells "It is up to the UK to decide the way in which EU rules will apply after Brexit, but newly produced vehicles will have the labels fitted on the production line so vehicles entering the UK market will have the labels." Maybe someone knowing UK could provide information on recent political decisions in that matter, or practical/real-life?

Maybe the deep link https://fuel-identifiers.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EV-labelling_Consumers_EN.pdf works for you? Elsewise, search for directive 2014/94/EU

[mnalis]

1 no, old products are not required to be retro-fitted, so how widespread the symbols are is mostly reflecting the market share of older and newer products at a given point in time

That one would be quite important for StreetComplete users, I'd think. If it's like 10% chargers with new marks, then it doesn't really help at all (if anything, it would make situation even more complex! e.g. xkcd 927). If it is at 90% newly marked, then it would be OK.

I have not invested a lot of effort into investigation, but in my little part of the EU it would seem it is much more like the former (i.e. I haven't seen a single one marked with those new logos yet. I haven't checked any post-COVID19 charger yet either though; new ones don't exactly pop up every day around here). YMMV.