Stay tuned for the latest updates on our mission to achieve multiparty interoperability in bidirectional charging worldwide!

This is the tenth Task 53 newsletter! (If you have missed the content of the previous ones, check out our archive).

Our newsletter is scheduled for every two months. Due to the holiday season, there will be an exception this time: you will receive No. 11 by the middle of August.

This update will inform you about the following topics:

1. New Partners Welcome
2. Free Testing for Task 53 Partners
3. IEA EV Outlook 2026 
4. Faster V2G Debugging with KERNVIA & Task 53 Exclusive Feature
5. Final Onboarding Call
6. Update NA
7. Save the Dates

New Partners Welcome

We are very pleased to welcome the following new industrial partners and non profit organizations since our last newsletter in March:

By clicking on the members logo you can visit their website.

For whole list of partners please visit our website task53.org

Free Testing for Task 53 Partners

As previously announced, Task 53 partners – in addition to the European Commission’s JRC laboratory in Ispra – can carry out interoperability testing at leading V2G testing centres such as DEKRA, ElaadNL and KERI, either free of charge or at a significantly reduced testing fee.

More Task 53 agreements with additional laboratories (also in NA) are in the pipeline.

This is a major boost for V2G interoperability, under clear participation conditions:

• The testing company must be an active industry Task 53 partner.
• The testing activity must fall within the agreed Task 53 scope: ISO 15118-20, (+ Amd. 1), OCPP 2.1 / IEC 63584, and (RfG 2.0) grid-code topics.
• The focus must be on interoperability, from 1:1:0 to 3:3:5 testing, both for AC and DC.
• Anonymous data and lessons learned from the tests must be shared within Task 53 (a major USP of Task 53).

For more detailes participation conditions please reach out to Patrick.

Beat Kreuter (Director Global Operations Dekra) and Marco Piffaretti (Operating Agent Task 53) signed agreement for free testing for Task 53 partners.

For eligible partners, the value is substantial: access to expert test facilities at no or reduced testing fee, exchange to shared Task 53 knowledge base and therefore faster V2G-validation and multiparty interoperability.

Task 53 is turning interoperability from discussion into measurable progress with all its partners. If interested, join Task 53 now, since onboarding of new partner is fading out ahead of the third workshop in September.

IEA Global EV Outlook 2026

The IEA’s Global EV Outlook 2026 highlights the continued growth of electric mobility and the increasing importance of smart charging and V2G for power system flexibility. At the same time, the IEA underlines that scalable V2G requires multiparty interoperability and advanced battery management systems (see pages 176–189 in the report). While ISO 15118-20 provides an international communication standard for bidirectional power transfer over CCS, the IEA notes that implementation is not yet consistent or universal, leaving room for differing interpretations and resulting in market offerings that are often constrained to specific EV models paired with specific charger models, sometimes relying on proprietary solutions. The IEA further points out that test procedures to demonstrate ISO 15118-20 conformity and multiparty interoperability across EV and charger brands are still under development, notably by Task 53.

Excerpt from the list on page p.185 (IEA highlighting importance of ''multiparty interoperability''). More Items listed in the original document.

The IEA now also refers to multiparty interoperability, highlighting its importance for V2G implementation.

KERNVIA to Develop a Task 53 Exclusive Feature

Task 53 has defined the collaboration details with KERNVIA, a German automotive software startup addressing a key practical challenge in V2G testing: the reliable analysis of charging communication failures between electric vehicles and charging stations.

KERNVIA’s Charging/Discharging Communication Analyzer is a desktop tool for analysing EV–EVSE communication traces, including .pcap, .pcapng, and .dump files. It supports sequence visualization, decoded payload inspection, timing and timeout validation, TLS and Plug & Charge diagnostics, and automated root-cause attribution to either the EV or EVSE side. The tool validates traces against ISO 15118 rule sets, with the aim of replacing time-consuming manual trace debugging with fast, repeatable, evidence-based analysis. Instead of simply showing PASS / FAIL, the tool helps engineers understand:

WHY it failed
WHERE it failed
WHO caused it  (EV or EVSE)
HOW to fix it

Kernvia Charging Communication Analyzer (Screenshot Desktop Tool)

By turning complex trace debugging into clear, automated analysis, KERNVIA helps replace hours of manual work with faster, more repeatable, evidence-based troubleshooting.

Kernvia Charging Communication Analyzer (Screenshot Desktop Tool with Task 53 specific feature)

KERNVIA has a dedicated button within its tool's settings menu to enable the "Golden Guidelines" analysis. This specialized feature is exclusively available to Task 53 partners, ensuring a tailored diagnostic experience. By activating this mode, partners can access automated root-cause attribution and interoperability checks based on the consortium's specific rule sets. This exclusive feature remains reserved solely for the Task 53 community to streamline V2G troubleshooting.

Final Onboarding Call

Since day one, the objective of the non-profit Task 53 consortium has not been to involve as many partners as possible, but to reach a qualified critical mass of industry players: today we count 24 testing EV manufacturers, EVSE manufacturers, aggregators, and DSOs, which is great!

The goal is to work through the full path toward ISO 15118-20 3:3:5 interoperability with the same partners, until a common implementation of the relevant V2G-standards is identified, validated, and made available to everyone open source. Instead of testing “speed-dating”, continuous improvement among a strongly committed group of V2G leaders is the Task 53 recipe.

Only once this objective has been secured, Task 53 will have fulfilled its mission.

Once a year, all Task 53 partners are meeting physically for an in-depth exchange. The next three-day workshop will take place at the beginning of September in the Netherlands and will mark the transition from pre-testing to multiparty interoperable testing. For this reason, the final potentially interested partners from around the world are invited to onboard before the 3rd Workshop possibly within end of July 2026.

Update from North America

Interoperability Will Not Happen by Design Alone

V2G News, by Steve Letendre, recently published a LinkedIn article titled “Interoperability Will Not Happen by Design Alone.” The article highlights one of the most important challenges facing bidirectional charging: the gap between technical standards and real-world system compatibility. It explains why interoperability testing is becoming a critical requirement for scaling V2G beyond pilot projects and custom integrations. The piece was informed by interviews with Semih Tetik of CharIN and Bjoern Christensen of Task 53 North America. Their insights underline that standards alone are not enough, reliable market deployment also depends on robust testing frameworks and validation infrastructure.

Save the Dates

Find below the list of dates and events where members of the core team of Task 53 participate as a speaker or are involved as an organizer.

MobiCon Berlin, Germany

10 - 11 June 2026

Nicole presenting about the importance of regulatory framework support for multiparty interopeability in bidirectional charging. The title of the presentation is: "Interoperabilität als Schlüssel zum Bidirektionalen Laden''.

EVS 39 Conference - Long Beach, California

21 – 24 June 2026

Bjoern will present a joint Task 53 core-team paper at the conference. The title of his presentation is:
“Multiparty Interoperability for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Technology Building the Global Foundation for Scalable Bidirectional Charging”

The 39th Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS39) is the premier showcase for industry innovation and is the longest-running international conference devoted to electric transportation and technologies.

3rd Task 53 Workshop - Arnhem, Netherlands

V2G Forum - Detroit

27 - 29 October 2026

Bjoern will present Task 53 at this conference.

V2G Leaders Europe - Brussels, Belgium

24 November 2026

What to expect: 

With Europe accelerating the electrification of transport and the integration of renewable energy, electric vehicles are increasingly recognised not only as consumers of electricity but also as flexible assets capable of supporting grid stability and system efficiency.

V2G Leaders Europe 2026 will focus on the next phase of development: moving from alignment and pilots to large-scale deployment and market integration.

Key themes will include:

• Multiparty interoperability between vehicles, charging infrastructure, aggregators and grid operators
• Implementation of ISO 15118-20 and interoperability testing frameworks
• Secure data exchange and digital trust frameworks for software-defined vehicles and energy platforms
• Market design and flexibility services enabling scalable commercial V2G models
• Integration of EV fleets into energy systems through AI-driven forecasting and digital platforms

The Summit will continue to serve as a neutral European platform where policymakers, industry leaders and innovators align strategies for a competitive and interoperable V2G ecosystem.

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