Date: 01/06/2011

HomePlug Powerline Alliance to receive support from Germany's major car manufacturers

At COMPUTEX, Taipei the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is announcing support from Germany's major car manufacturers - Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen - for its HomePlug Technology.

The release states: After intense case studies and tests, the five German car manufacturers - working together as the Coordination Office Charging Interface - chose to support HomePlug's IEEE 1901 Profile Green PHY (GP) as the technology for the charging interface of electric vehicles. Additionally, HomePlug has invited the participation of these auto manufacturers in developing the HomePlug Green PHY certification program. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance serves as a compliance and certification body for IEEE 1901 and manages the largest compliance and interoperability certification program for powerline networking products.

"For electric vehicles to be widely accepted, they must integrate into existing and emerging charging infrastructures, connected to the smart grid," noted Dr. Heiko Doerr, Manager of Coordination Office Charging Interface. "For charging electric vehicles, the communication interface is established via the charging connector, and the HomePlug Green PHY provides a common communications standard to support all modes of AC and DC charging."

"The endorsement and support of these world class manufacturers is a significant step in establishing robust technology standards to deliver on the smart grid promise," commented Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. "We are delighted with their decision and look forward to working with them to develop the product certification process."

Pike Research analyst Bob Gohn commented, "The adoption of standards is a key driver to widespread smart appliance adoption, and our research indicates that HomePlug Green PHY is likely to be the power line standard that gives manufacturers the confidence to rollout products in increasingly greater numbers."

The HomePlug GP specification, finalized in June 2010, is a low power, highly reliable and cost-optimized powerline networking specification, which targets "Smart Grid" applications such as appliances, smart meters, climate control, and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.
More details about HomePlug GP can be found at http://www.homeplug.org/tech/homeplug_gp.