Electric vehicle fast-charging infrastructure operator Chavy said on Monday it has been selected as the first pilot operator for the automatic charging and payment Plug and Charge (PnC) service on public fast chargers promoted by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. Chavy will initially apply PnC to 30 chargers from late October and check service stability in real charging conditions.

PnC is an international standard charging technology that automatically handles charging and payment when the charging connector is plugged into a vehicle, without card authentication or on-site payment. The ministry has been pushing to introduce PnC to public fast chargers to cut the existing charging process of 5 to 6 steps and improve convenience. The pilot results will be used as a basis to expand the service to all public fast chargers that support PnC.

Chavy applied a hardware security module (HSM) chip, a dedicated security device that protects key information inside hardware and handles encryption and authentication, to the ministry's fast chargers first, the company said. Chargers equipped with the chip improve security during the authentication process between the vehicle and the charger.

Chavy also applied Hyundai Motor Group's PnC service to its own charging network in June. It has already been operating "Baro Chavy," which handles everything from vehicle authentication to charging and payment simply by connecting the connector. The company said it reflected the automatic payment user experience and on-site operating know-how accumulated in the process in the service's completeness.

Choi Young-hoon (최영훈), Chavy's chief executive, said, "The competitiveness of charging infrastructure does not stop at simply increasing the number of installations, but comes from the convenience that users actually feel during the charging process and the reliability of the service." He added, "Based on the PnC technology and on-site experience that Chavy has accumulated, we will provide a stable public PnC service."