Does Plug and Charge work on EVs sold in India yet?

What Plug and Charge actually promises

Plug and Charge is the term for a charging session where you plug the cable into your car and walk away. No app to open, no RFID card to tap, no OTP to type in. The car identifies itself to the charger using a digital certificate, the session starts, and the bill is settled automatically to the account tied to that certificate. The underlying protocol that makes this possible is ISO 15118, the international standard for communication between an EV and a charger, which CharIN, the global body that runs the Combined Charging System, lists as the backbone technology behind both Plug and Charge and newer features like bidirectional vehicle to grid charging.

None of this exists for ordinary buyers in India today. If you are shopping for an EV and expect to drive up to a public charger and have it start on its own, you will be disappointed.

What you actually get at an Indian charger

Most EVs sold in India do not carry ISO 15118 support at all, and the certificate infrastructure that a charging network would need to run true Plug and Charge, the backend that issues and checks those digital certificates, is still being built out, according to charging industry explainers tracking the standard's rollout. In practice you start a session with a network's app, an RFID card, or a QR code and OTP at the charger itself.

There is one shortcut worth knowing about if you charge mostly on one network. Statiq, one of India's larger public charging operators, runs a feature called Autocharge on some of its own chargers. The car sends a unique identification number to the charger the moment you plug in a CCS connector, and the session starts without you opening the app. Statiq names the MG ZS EV and the Tata Nexon EV among cars this has worked with. But this is not ISO 15118 Plug and Charge with certificates and automatic billing across operators. It only works on Statiq's own chargers, not when you roam onto a partner network, and it depends on your specific car and charger model being on Statiq's supported list.

What this means if you are buying now

Do not pick an EV or a charging habit expecting tap and go charging to arrive soon in India. Budget for carrying at least one network's RFID card as backup, since app logins and OTP screens can fail at a charger with a patchy signal, which matters as much in a basement parking charger in Bengaluru as on a highway. If a dealer or an EV brand claims your car supports Plug and Charge in India, ask specifically whether that means true ISO 15118 certificate based authentication across any charger, or a single network's own shortcut like Autocharge. The two are not the same, and only the first is "Plug and Charge" in the standard's actual sense.

The direction globally is toward ISO 15118 becoming standard equipment, with carmakers and standards bodies embedding it into newer vehicle platforms. For an Indian buyer today, treat it as a feature to ask about for your next EV, not one to rely on for the one you are buying this year.

Sources