StatusNotification is how a charger tells the platform what each connector is doing. It sounds simple and it is the source of a surprising share of operational confusion, because the states describe the charger's view rather than the driver's experience.
A connector reporting itself available may be physically blocked, and one reporting a fault may be perfectly capable of charging. Both situations are consistent with the specification.
The states, and what they actually mean
- Available: nothing is connected and the connector is ready to be used.
- Preparing: a vehicle or cable is connected but energy is not yet flowing, usually pending authorisation.
- Charging: energy is flowing.
- SuspendedEV: the charger is offering energy and the vehicle is not drawing it.
- SuspendedEVSE: the charger is not currently offering energy, for example under load management.
- Finishing: the session has ended but the connector is not yet released.
- Reserved, Unavailable and Faulted: administrative or fault conditions.
The two suspended states carry the most information
SuspendedEV means the vehicle has stopped drawing. Often that is simply a full battery, or a departure timer, or a charge limit the driver set. It is usually not a fault and requires no action.
SuspendedEVSE means the charger is withholding energy, which under managed charging is normal and expected. Platforms that present either state as a problem generate support work that has nothing to fix.
Where dashboards mislead
Operators typically want a simple picture: working, in use, or broken. Mapping nine states onto three loses information, and which information is lost is a design choice usually made without much thought.
The most damaging simplification is treating Preparing as in use. A connector that sits in Preparing indefinitely, because authorisation never completed, is a failed session that the dashboard is counting as activity.
Available does not mean usable
A charger reports on its electrical and logical state. It has no view of a vehicle parked in the bay without charging, a damaged cable, a blocked approach or a display nobody can read in sunlight.
This is the gap between reported uptime and the reliability drivers experience, and it is why session success is a more honest operational metric than availability.
Faulted is less specific than it sounds
The fault state is accompanied by an error code, and the range of codes is narrow relative to the range of things that can go wrong. Manufacturers map their internal conditions onto that limited set differently, so the same code means different things across a mixed fleet.
Vendor-specific error information is often available alongside the standard code, and it is usually where the actionable detail is. A platform that stores only the standard code discards it.
Transitions matter more than states
A snapshot of current state answers less than the sequence of transitions does. Available to Preparing to Available, repeated, is a charger where sessions are being attempted and abandoned. The same charger polled at intervals looks fine.
Retaining the transition history is what turns status data into diagnosis, and it is a platform capability worth checking before selection rather than after an incident.
What to verify during integration
- That every state the charger can report is handled rather than falling into a default.
- That the two suspended states are distinguished and not both shown as faults.
- That vendor-specific error information is retained alongside standard codes.
- That transitions are recorded, more than current state.
- That connector numbering agrees between charger and platform.