EV charging stations expose a uniquely difficult CRA landscape: A single physical device can be accessed through very different user paths: ISO 15118 (Plug&Charge), RFID cards, mobile apps, credit-card terminals, and OEM-backends. Between the end user and the actual product manufacturer sit multiple intermediaries (CSMS, OEM cloud, roaming hubs, payment processors), each with partial control over configuration, telemetry, and security posture. How to deliver all the CRA obligations across this complex eco system? At the same time a typical Charging Station Operator (CPO) has to manage over 300 different manufactures, models, firmware images and cyber security might differ from monitored private charging stations up to high-power public charging stations.

Rather on relying on "out-of-band" CRA management, a better approach might be to integrate all CRA cyber security obligations and especially the vulnerability management deeply into the commonly used management protocols like the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). This removes the disconnect between CRA compliance work and operational reality.

Work in the Open Charge Alliance (notably the Cyber Security Task Group), CyberStand.eu’s CRA alignment efforts, and the newly NLnet NGI Zero Commons–funded EVQI project is already pushing concrete interfaces in this direction: Device-model variables for CRA readiness, structured vulnerability and lifecycle metadata, cross-vendor health monitoring, and standardized audit-trail exports suitable for CRA Article 10-15 reporting.

This session outlines how CRA obligations can be realized in a heterogeneous, multi-vendor charging ecosystem with an emphasis on operators managing 50000+ of devices. It shows which processes must be automated, which artefacts need to be transported over OCPP, and how deep protocol-level integration enables consistent, scalable CRA compliance across an extremely diverse EV-charging landscape.