How Nexblue became the first manufacturer to support AC Plug & Charge on the Monta platform

For most EV drivers, charging still involves a step: tap a card, open an app, enter a PIN. Plug & Charge removes that step entirely. Plug in and charging starts. No input required.

This is the story of how Nexblue and Monta built that experience together for AC charging, why it took serious technical collaboration to get there, and what it opens up for the future.

At a glance

About Nexblue

Nexblue is a Swedish EV charging hardware manufacturer, founded in 2021 and headquartered in Stockholm. The company designs and manufactures AC charging hardware, including the Nexblue Edge (up to 22kW) and Nexblue Point (7.4kW), built for residential, workplace, and public charging environments across Europe. Every Nexblue charger ships ISO 15118, OCPP 2.0.1, and V2G-ready from the factory, and is certified by TÜV Rheinland. The company’s tagline, “Be current. Always forward,” reflects a deliberate focus on future-proofing: building hardware that does not just meet today’s standards, but is already prepared for what comes next in EV infrastructure.

THE CHALLENGE

Why AC Plug & Charge is harder than it sounds

Plug & Charge based on the ISO 15118 standard has existed in DC fast charging contexts for several years. The technology is well-understood, but it was built for an environment where the charger and vehicle are always in digital dialogue. DC chargers require High Level Communication (HLC) to function at all, so there is no fallback. Either the digital handshake works, or the session does not start.

AC charging is different. AC charging stations must remain backward-compatible with a basic analogue signalling method defined in IEC 61851-1 as Control Pilot Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), that has powered millions of charging sessions for over a decade. When you add ISO 15118 on top, the hardware now needs to manage two completely different communication modes simultaneously, switching cleanly between them based on what the vehicle supports, and doing so within strict timing windows that govern energy delivery.

In practice, this means the firmware needs to be significantly more sophisticated. Especially for TLS and Plug & Charge, AC charge points must now handle advanced cryptography. This means that testing cannot be done on paper. It has to be done with real vehicles, real certificates, and real edge cases.

THE COLLABORATION

Testing in the snow

Nexblue did not send a firmware file and wait for results. They came to Copenhagen.

In January 2026, Nexblue engineers travelled to Monta’s hardware lab for onsite interoperability testing. The session involved connecting physical Nexblue charger samples to the Monta platform and running end-to-end certificate provisioning, installation, and Plug & Charge sessions with real electric vehicles. This included working through every step of the certificate setup and ISO 15118 handshake to confirm it functioned correctly under live conditions.

Monta’s hardware team maintains an in-house testing environment specifically for this kind of validation work: physical charger samples, compatible EVs, and a live connection to the Monta backend. Before any manufacturer is publicly listed as supporting a feature like Plug & Charge, that support has to be demonstrated. Not just on paper, but in a real session.

«Achieving Plug & Charge support with Monta was the result of close, hands-on collaboration, including onsite interoperability testing that put our hardware through its paces in real conditions. It positions our charging stations at the forefront of what operators and drivers now expect from AC charging, and sets the stage for what comes next with Vehicle-to-Grid.»

— Chris Jenssen, Chief Commercial Officer, NexBlue

How the certificate handshake works

The process that happens when a Plug & Charge session starts is invisible to the driver, and that is the point. Under the hood, three things happen in sequence:

• Provisioning: The charger generates a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and sends it to the Monta backend. Monta routes it to a Certificate Authority, which signs it. Monta then installs the certificate chain on the charging station.
• Handshake: When a compatible vehicle plugs in, the charger and vehicle establish an encrypted TLS connection through the cable. The vehicle and charging station establish trust using installed certificates. The vehicle can then present its unique contract certificate.
• Authorisation: The platform validates the contract certificate and authorises the session automatically. The driver never interacts with any of this.

THE RESULT

First on the platform: a foundation for what’s next

Following successful onsite testing, Nexblue Delta was listed as the first hardware manufacturer on the Monta platform with verified AC Plug & Charge support.

For operators deploying Nexblue Delta hardware, this means they can offer their drivers a genuinely seamless charging experience from day one. No extra authentication step. No app required at the point of plug-in. Just power, delivered automatically.

Plug & Charge on AC charging is one of those milestones that sounds straightforward but requires serious technical collaboration to get right. Nexblue’s team flew to Copenhagen for onsite testing, and together we built something that changes how drivers experience AC charging. They’re the first of several manufacturers we’re working toward this milestone with, and this is just the beginning.

— Casper Rasmussen, CEO, Monta

The same foundation, a bigger goal

There is a reason this milestone matters beyond the immediate driver experience. The certificate management infrastructure required for Plug & Charge, provisioning, signing, and TLS, is exactly the same infrastructure required for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology based on the newest ISO 15118-20 standard.

V2G would allow electric vehicles to feed energy back into the grid during peak periods, turning EV fleets into controllable, distributed energy assets. It is widely seen as one of the most significant capabilities in the next phase of EV infrastructure. The main constraint today is not the platform or the charging station; it is the availability of compatible vehicles from OEMs.

But the infrastructure is now in place. Nexblue chargers on the Monta platform are V2G and Plug & Charge ready from a hardware and interoperability standpoint. When compatible vehicles arrive, they will be ready.