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The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, has submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) a report outlining priority areas where standards and conformance activities are needed to facilitate the safe, effective, and large-scale deployment of electric drive vehicles (EDV) in the United States.

The report details findings from the April 5-6 ANSI Workshop, Standards and Codes for Electric Drive Vehicles, which ANSI convened on behalf of DOE and the Idaho National Laboratory. Nearly 120 stakeholders and another 30 webinar attendees examined the standards, codes, conformance programs, and education initiatives needed to drive the widespread deployment of EDVs in support of President Barack Obama's goal to have one million electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.

According to the ANSI Workshop Report: Standards and Codes for Electric Drive Vehicles, the issues of safety and consumer confidence – and the conformance and training programs needed to support them – are key priorities for the widespread acceptance of EDVs and the continued growth of the market. The overarching conclusion of the April workshop was a call for better coordination and harmonization of standardization efforts, and for a public-private partnership to move this work forward quickly and effectively. Participants agreed that a standardization roadmap for North America would help to establish priorities for the work that needs to be done. A matrix of the various coordinating bodies and standards activities would also help stakeholders to navigate the various activities taking place and facilitate global harmonization.

To offer a neutral forum where public and private sector stakeholders can work cooperatively toward solutions that will help build the market for EDVs, ANSI formed the Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) in March 2011. The goal of the EVSP is to produce a strategic roadmap by year's end that will define the standards and conformity assessment programs that are needed to support this major shift in our national automotive landscape. The EVSP began the groundwork for the standardization roadmap at its plenary meeting on June 20-21 in Detroit. The ANSI Workshop Report: Standards and Codes for Electric Drive Vehicles will serve as a key input document to the continued efforts of the EVSP.

The full workshop report, as well as the speaker presentations and webinar recordings of the April 5-6 workshop, are available at www.ansi.org/edv.

(Source: ANSI press release 2011-08-17)