Plug & Charge in 2026: What ISO 15118 and the AFIR Actually Change – and What They Don't (Yet)
📅 Published on October 20, 2026
Information as of 20 October 2026. We summarise technical write-ups of the regulation and one market analysis; the registry figures are operator self-declarations and we have not independently verified them. This article is not legal advice. The focus is on Germany.
Plug in, charge, unplug, drive off – no app, no card, no QR code. That is how "Plug & Charge" has been described for years. Since early 2026 it is also written into an EU regulation. That sounds like a breakthrough, but for drivers it is less simple than it sounds: the regulation prescribes a technology, not that it works at every charger. This article sets out what is actually required, what market data says about today's availability, and what it means for your next charging stop.
What Plug & Charge is – and what it is not
With Plug & Charge the car identifies itself to the charger. It is built on the ISO 15118 standard: car and charger exchange digital certificates in the background, the charger assigns the session to a charging contract, and billing runs through that contract. You neither open an app nor present a card. Three things have to line up: the vehicle supports the standard and has a contract installed, the charger supports it, and your provider is connected to the charger's operator through roaming.
It helps to separate it from two similar-sounding methods. First, Autocharge (the name varies by network) does not use a certificate but recognises the car by its MAC address. Second, ad-hoc payment by card or QR code, which the AFIR requires for new chargers (see our article Card payment at charging stations). According to the analysis by Innobu (as of 3 July 2026), the European Commission does not treat Plug & Charge as a substitute for ad-hoc payment under Article 5(1) AFIR: operators have to offer both where the payment obligation applies.
What the EU requires – dates and scope
The legal basis is Regulation (EU) 2025/656, which supplements the AFIR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1804) and, according to Bender, was published in the Official Journal on 18 June 2025. The technical sources we reviewed (Bender, Innobu, Chargalytics) agree on the following:
| Date | Requirement |
|---|---|
| 8 Jan 2026 | Newly installed or renovated publicly accessible AC charge points must support ISO 15118-2 |
| 14 Apr 2026 | Operators must provide charging data in DATEX II through a standardised interface (Innobu; see our article on live status) |
| 1 Jan 2027 | ISO 15118-20 in addition, for newly installed or renovated charge points |
Three caveats matter for drivers. First: the rules cover new or substantially renewed charge points. According to Innobu, existing chargers do not have to be retrofitted. Second: the requirement is that the charge point is capable; it does not mean Plug & Charge works at every charger from the deadline – that needs certificates, contract data and roaming links. Third: the sources differ on whether private charge points are covered from 2027. Bender lists public and private mode-3 charge points for 2027, while Chargalytics notes that the regulatory section describes public points only. Without the full regulatory text we cannot settle this and leave it open; for charging on the road the public side is what matters anyway.
The deadline itself is also contested: Chargalytics cites a position paper from the organisation CharIN dated 28 April 2026, saying that fewer than ten labs worldwide are accredited for full ISO 15118-20 conformance testing (lead time 6 to 9 months), that formal AC test cases are not expected before late 2027, and recommending that the 2027 deadline be postponed. We did not find whether or how the deadline will be changed; treat 1 January 2027 as the current rule, not as a guarantee.
What ISO 15118-20 changes compared with -2
According to Innobu, the newer Part 20 adds bidirectional charging (vehicle-to-grid), handling of multiple contracts in one vehicle, and certificate "cross-signing" so that the system does not depend on a single trust root. For the charger this means, per Innobu, among other things OCPP 2.0.1 or 2.1, secure cryptographic storage and a connection to a V2G certificate infrastructure. How bidirectional charging matters for private users is covered in our article on V2G and V2H; it has little to do with finding a charger.
Where Plug & Charge actually shows up today
The market analysis by Chargalytics (19 August 2026) evaluates, among other sources, the German charging register. Note that the source sells market data itself, and according to the article the register entries are operator self-declarations, not measured functionality. With that caveat:
- Of 31,865 public sites in Germany, 1,018 (3.2%) declare Plug & Charge.
- Among the 236 DC sites (50 kW and above) that declare it, Aral pulse has 53 of 87, Allego 11 of 68, Ionity 1 of 61 and Tesla none of 268.
- Austria and the Nordic NOBIL register have an authentication field, but according to the article no entry mentions Plug & Charge; France, Italy and the Netherlands do not ask for it.
- The article names Autocharge at EnBW, Mer, Electra, Fastned, Powerdot and Gridserve, but explicitly presents those figures as a sample drawn from announcements.
The figures are therefore rough and should be read differently per operator. What can be taken from them is sober: if you rely on Plug & Charge as your only payment method, many chargers will leave you without a working option. That "1 of 61" at Ionity means the register rarely carries the declaration rather than that Ionity cannot do it is a plausible guess – the source does not establish it.
On the vehicle side, it is not only a question of brand
Chargalytics lists vehicles from VW Group (including Skoda, Audi, Cupra), BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Volvo and Polestar (model year 2026) as Plug & Charge capable. Behind that are differences you cannot see before you drive:
- Contract in the vehicle: without an activated charging contract in the car nothing happens, even if car and charger both support the standard. Activation is manufacturer-specific, often through an app or the infotainment system – check your manual or your provider.
- Autocharge limits: per Chargalytics, Autocharge works on DC only, needs OCPP 1.5 or newer, and cannot reliably identify cars with a rotating MAC address (VW MEB vehicles are named); CHAdeMO vehicles are excluded.
- Alternative routes: according to the article Ford uses telematics-based certificate delivery instead of the standard flow, and a spring 2026 pilot by Vattenfall InCharge and WirelessCar with more than 700 drivers started sessions via telematics. The market has not settled on one route yet.
A historical note: as early as 2022 Aral announced that all Aral pulse fast chargers (about 500 charge points at the time) support Plug & Charge, naming among compatible models the Porsche Taycan, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQS (emobilitaet.online, 28 March 2022). That is a snapshot from more than four years ago – take it as evidence of how long this has been developing, not as a current compatibility list.
The risks reported
Chargalytics raises several points that make the standard look less finished than the marketing term suggests. Certificates run through trust anchors: Hubject operates a root certificate authority, and according to the article Europe now also has Gireve (with Thales) and a CharIN root run by Irdeto. A security paper accepted at USENIX VehicleSec 2026 describes a relay attack on Plug & Charge billing, with the root cause being that the signature contains no station identity. We cannot verify the technical claim and report it only as an indication that the security of the method is still being discussed. For everyday use that is no reason for panic, but a reason to check your bill after the first charge with any new method.
What it means for your charging plan
- Plug & Charge is a convenience route, not a replacement for plan B. Keep a charging card, an app or card payment ready (see charging card roaming and charging tariffs on the road).
- Still check the price beforehand. With Plug & Charge you do not see the price at the charger, only in your contract. Whether an operator has to show the price before charging is the subject of German price-display law – see our article Charging prices at the charger. The contract price can differ from the ad-hoc price; do the sums once to see whether your contract really makes the trip cheaper.
- Watch the first bill. With a new method it pays to compare location, time and kWh with the invoice.
- Do not expect a Plug & Charge filter in apps. Because register entries are self-declared and Autocharge, Plug & Charge and telematics routes get mixed up, a reliable "works for me" indicator is hard to build at the moment.
How Elunio handles this
Elunio currently does not show whether a charger supports Plug & Charge, and we would not claim it unchecked: the data is, as described above, self-declaration. What the app provides instead are community reports from drivers on prices, availability and faults – which is what you want to know before you plug in, with Plug & Charge or without. The reports come from drivers; where few Elunio users are on the road there are few reports, and the data is densest in Baden-Württemberg and the DACH region. We cannot promise gap-free coverage. More on the principle is in Community prices vs. list prices.
Frequently asked questions
Does every new charger have to support Plug & Charge?
According to Bender and Innobu, newly installed or renovated public AC charge points have had to support ISO 15118-2 since 8 January 2026, and ISO 15118-20 in addition from 1 January 2027. That concerns the capability of the hardware; it does not guarantee that roaming and contracts work.
Does Plug & Charge work at existing chargers?
Existing installations do not have to be retrofitted, per Innobu. Some operators introduced it voluntarily; the register figures (3.2% of sites per Chargalytics, self-declared) show it is still the exception.
Does Plug & Charge replace card payment?
No. According to Innobu the Commission does not regard Plug & Charge as a substitute for ad-hoc payment under Article 5(1) AFIR; operators must offer the ad-hoc option where the obligation applies.
How do I activate Plug & Charge in my car?
That depends on the manufacturer and provider. We did not find a single standard procedure; ask your car manufacturer or your charging contract provider.
Conclusion
The EU has made Plug & Charge a technical requirement for new charge points, but practice lags behind: only a small share of German sites declare themselves capable in the register, the certificate and contract infrastructure is fragmented, and the industry itself is debating a postponement of the 2027 deadline. Use the feature when car, charger and contract fit – and for every other case keep a card, an app or card payment ready, and an eye on the price.
Sources: Bender – "AFIR & ISO 15118: New obligation for AC charging stations from 2026", bender.de (statements on Regulation (EU) 2025/656, OJ 18 June 2025) · Innobu – "ISO 15118, Plug & Charge and AFIR 2027" (as of 3 July 2026), innobu.com · Chargalytics – "Europe mandated Plug&Charge. Nobody can say where it works." (19 August 2026), chargalytics.com · emobilitaet.online – "Alle Aral Pulse Schnellader jetzt Plug & Charge-fähig" (28 March 2022) · Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 (AFIR). We could not retrieve the full text of Regulation (EU) 2025/656 during research; the dates come from the technical sources named.