Must the charging piles exported to Europe use European-standard charging pile mainboards? Is a national-standard charging pile mainboard plus an OCPP gateway considered compliant?

Conclusion first

1. The export of charging piles to Europe "must" comply with the mandatory requirements of EU regulations regarding interfaces, electrical safety, EMC, metering, and communication protocols, but the regulations do not specify that the hardware form must adopt the "European standard motherboard.".

2. As long as the entire system meets the requirements of CE (including LVD+EMC+RoHS), CE-MID certification, EN 61851 series, and AFIR regulations for interfaces/payment/open data, the national standard motherboard + OCPP gateway can comply at the certification level, and some enterprises have already obtained certificates and achieved mass production under this scheme.

3. The key point lies in "whole-machine certification" rather than "motherboard lineage"; the gateway must fully comply with EU additional requirements such as OCPP 2.0.1, ISO 15118 Plug & Charge, TLS encryption, SECC certificate chain, and plug-and-play payment, and pass testing along with the entire charging pile.

detailed description

• Regulatory Level: AFIR stipulates that public AC charging piles must adopt the Type 2 interface, support plug-and-play payment, and maintain open data, but does not specify the hardware architecture of the control panel.

• Certification Level: The CE LVD/EMC directives, EN 61851-1/21-1, and MID metering directive all apply to the complete machine; the test report verifies only functionality and safety, without tracing the "origin" of the motherboard.

• Practical implementation: China already has a complete solution of "national standard mainboard + SECC protocol conversion + OCPP gateway." Firmware OTA can be completed within 1-2 weeks by reusing the existing CE housing, requiring only the addition of SECC certificates. The cost is over 60% lower than directly replacing with an European standard board, and the cycle is shortened by 4 weeks.

Notes:

1. The gateway must support TLS encryption, remote firmware updates, and ISO 27001 information security requirements in accordance with OCPP 2.0.1.

2. For markets such as Germany and France with 400V three-phase power, hardware components like the mainboard power circuit, leakage detection (6 mA DC + 30 mA AC), and PLC modulation chip (ST8500) must be in place, as software conversion alone is insufficient.

3.  UK Exception: After Brexit, UKCA is required, and the PEN grounding method is prohibited. Additional PEN disconnection monitoring must be implemented. The same bare board cannot simultaneously comply with UK and EU standards.

In summary, "national standard motherboard + OCPP gateway" ≠ natural compliance, but as long as the whole machine is certified and passes according to EU standards, it can be legally exported to Europe and has already been adopted by multiple charging pile manufacturers.

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