A Comprehensive Review of Blockchain Technology Implementation in the EV Charging Infrastructure

Abstract

Charging infrastructure is a key factor in successful electric vehicle adoption. Charging stations are still a fragmented market in terms of ownership, lack of standards, and charging protocols. The increasing decentralised grid has made energy and communication flow bi-directional. Challenges arise in maintaining the increasing decentralised structure, security, and privacy of the network. Blockchain facilitates the interconnectedness of such a distributed and decentralised network. Blockchain's versatility lies in its transparent and immutable decentralized architecture that enables direct transactions between users without the need of a middleman. It provides powerful safeguards against cyberattacks with its advanced cryptography enabling privacy-preserving authentication. This chapter presents a comprehensive review on the application of blockchain technology in EV charging infrastructure such as facilitating the peer-to-peer energy exchange, increased security and privacy, immutable transactions, and mitigating trust issues among the participants in the charging infrastructure.