It’s time to stop over-charging drivers for charging up their electric vehicles (EVs)—as well as to ensure that the grid is efficient enough to support consumer demand.

Now, two divisions of global powerhouse Siemens (News - Alert), as well as electric utility Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Detroit-based Ford Motor Company will collaborate to develop a “smart” and cost-effective EV charging platform.

The alliance was formed on March 14 following a mandate—and a $1.6 million award—from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to Siemens’Corporate Research and Technology (SCR&T), based in Princeton, New Jersey. In turn, the public grant will be supported by nearly $750,000 in matching research funding—an investment shared with Siemens Low Voltage Electronics; the group responsible for Residential Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment and a business unit of Siemens Infrastructure and Cities.

The research funding is intended to provide manufacturers with a financial incentive to set aside ‘winner-take-all’ competitive imperatives—and set a clearer path to align commercial EV charging technology development that supports integration with the power grid and ultimately provides substantial benefits to consumers.

The research also is intended to help utilities manage the transition to a national EV charging infrastructure; as well as the growing demand it would place on the grid and generation capacity. In addition to validating concepts, Duke Energy (News - Alert) will provide input and help guide communications development. This ultimately will provide ways for utilities to manage increasing demand without having to add costly generation and distribution capacity that would be passed on to consumers and increase carbon emissions.

Ford and Siemens have a long history of shared EV development, having worked together on early hybrid vehicle (HEV) and all-electric designs. Automakers—including Ford, with its Focus EV— have made a huge investment in plug-in cars, but the market can’t reward this investment unless deployment expands. And deployment can’t expand unless consumer demand grows.

According to the DOE, the intent of the research grant is to improve the functionality and affordability of electric vehicle chargers. In addition to supporting energy security, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steve Chu, “Developing smart electric vehicle chargers will provide more options to consumers and accelerate the build-out of the charging infrastructure in ways that strengthen the grid.”

“The government’s investment will expedite collaboration,” said Barry Contrael, director of Low Voltage Electronics for Siemens Infrastructure and Cities. “If any company were to endeavor to go it alone, they would have to create and let the market accept or reject solutions for all the possible combinations of EV chargers, utility communication protocols and networks that exist. The resources required to take on this task would be prohibitive, even with companies like Siemens that have the necessary scaling and infrastructure. By teaming up, the companies chosen by the DOE will be able to develop standardized solutions faster and at a greatly reduced overall cost.”