The Precision Imperative: Trust and Transparency in EV Charging - Carlo Gavazzi & Pionix
As the global EV infrastructure matures from early adoption to mass market utility, one variable has become the new currency of trust: Fiscal Transparency. In the world of public charging, where electricity is a traded commodity, the Energy Meter is the supreme arbiter. It is the critical bridge between the grid and the user’s wallet, ensuring that every kilowatt-hour is counted, signed, and billed with absolute precision. But for too long, achieving full compliance with strict calibration laws—like Germany's "Eichrecht"—has been a labyrinthine engineering challenge for hardware manufacturers.Today, we are changing that.
The Announcement: Pionix x Carlo Gavazzi
Pionix is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Carlo Gavazzi, an international leader in industrial automation and a trusted provider of energy metering solutions for EV charging applications. Together, we are bridging the divide between precision metering hardware and the open-source software that powers the future of mobility.
As part of this collaboration, a native EVerest driver has been developed for the new Carlo Gavazzi EM580 Energy Analyzer. This contribution means that one of the most advanced, billing-grade meters in the industry is now "plug-and-play" ready for any charger running the EVerest stack.
Technical Deep Dive: The EM580
The Carlo Gavazzi EM580 is purpose-built for the compact and demanding environments of modern AC wallboxes and public pedestals. It offers a suite of features designed specifically for the next generation of charging:
- Direct Connection and Accurate Billing: Handles up to 65 A directly, saving valuable cabinet space (compact 3-DIN size) and enabling fair billing through cable loss compensation.
- Extreme Resilience: Engineered with a high operating temperature tolerance of up to 70°C, ensuring reliability even in compact, unventilated outdoor chargers.
- Future-Proof Certification: Features Bidirectional MID certification. This allows for the certified billing of both imported (charging) and exported (V2G) energy, making it ready for Vehicle-to-Grid applications.
- Eichrecht & OCMF Native: The device generates digitally signed data packages ready for transparency software, ensuring full compliance with fiscal metering regulations.
- Advanced Display Visualization: The backlit matrix LCD enables clear display of charging session data, customizable text strings, and tariff information in compliance with AFIR requirements.
The Software Advantage
Previously, integrating a fiscal meter capable of OCMF (Open Charge Metering Format) signing required complex custom firmware. Developers had to manually map Modbus registers, handle the cryptographic signing handshake, and ensure the data packet remained intact for the backend.
The new EVerest driver handles this heavy lifting. It abstracts the EM580’s Modbus interface and OCMF capabilities, allowing the EVerest Energy Manager to:
- Read certified energy values in real-time.
- Automatically retrieve and forward signed data tuples for billing.
- Manage bidirectional energy flows seamlessly within the charging logic.
Why Open-Source Drivers are a Game-Changer for OEMs
For hardware manufacturers (OEMs), the pressure to comply with regulations like Eichrecht can paralyze product roadmaps. Traditionally, integrating a new compliant meter required a dedicated R&D sprint to write, test, and validate the secure data transmission.
This is the "Hidden Tax" of proprietary compliance implementation.
The open-source model eliminates this tax. With a native driver in the EVerest repository, OEMs can:
- Standardize Integration: Instead of deciphering complex cryptographic manuals, developers simply enable the EM 580 module in the EVerest configuration file.
- Focus on Differentiation: Engineers stop spending weeks on protocol implementation and start focusing on value (user experience, design, and app integration).
- Ensure Compliance: The driver is community-vetted and tested against the actual hardware, reducing the risk of data rejection by CPOs or backends.
A Shared Mission: Accuracy by Design
This partnership is about more than just reading energy values; it’s about aligning the accuracy of fully certified energy meters with the flexibility of open-source software.
"The EM580 was designed to solve the complexity of fiscal metering in EV chargers. By integrating with EVerest, we make certified fiscal metering accessible to any OEM without them needing to reinvent the wheel on data signing and compliance."
— Michele Tollardo, International Product Specialist at Carlo Gavazzi
About Carlo Gavazzi
Carlo Gavazzi Automation is an international electronics group with activities in the design, manufacture, and marketing of electronic equipment targeted at the global markets of industrial and building automation.
Get Started
The Carlo Gavazzi EM580 driver is available now in the EVerest repository. Whether you are a CPO ensuring billing transparency or an OEM designing your next-generation V2G-ready charger, the tools you need are ready.
[Learn more about the Carlo Gavazzi EM 580]
[Explore the LFE EVerest Project]