Short answer: If federal highway money, California Energy Commission-tracked funding or CALeVIP money is involved, assume OCPP 2.0.1 is required; for any other grant or utility program, read its rules. If you are spending only your own money, no rule we found requires it, but buy 2.0.1 anyway: the two versions cannot talk to each other, and a 1.6 charger limits which software can run it today, unless the vendor ships certified 2.0.1 firmware. Then ask the vendor for the certificate, not the claim.
OCPP, the Open Charge Point Protocol, is how a charger and the software that manages it exchange messages: starting sessions, reporting faults, setting power limits, updating firmware. It matters to a site host for one reason. It decides how easily you can change software providers without replacing the hardware. Our software platform guide covers the platform side; this article is about the version question.
What changes between 1.6 and 2.0.1
The Open Charge Alliance, which maintains the standard, says plainly: "OCPP 1.6 and OCPP 2.0.1 are not compatible," and that 2.0.1 "is not backward compatible with OCPP 1.6." A charger speaking one version cannot be run by software that only speaks the other. That is the whole lock-in risk in one sentence.
On features, the Alliance lists device management, improved transaction handling, added security, added smart charging functionality, support for ISO 15118 (the standard behind Plug and Charge), and display and messaging support as the gains in 2.0.1. Its FAQ describes 1.6's security as "optional security features... through extensions." 1.6 is not obsolete: the Alliance says it "remains widely used" while "the industry is moving towards OCPP 2.x," and that 2.0.1 "is on its way to replacing OCPP 1.6 as the new industry standard." OCPP 2.1, released in January 2025, builds on 2.0.1, and the Alliance says application logic written for 2.0.1 stays compatible.
One claim you will hear is that 1.6 hardware can never be updated to 2.0.1. The Alliance pages we read do not address firmware upgrades either way. Treat it as a vendor question: ask whether this exact model has a 2.0.1 firmware upgrade, when, at what cost, and who certifies it.
Who actually requires 2.0.1
Federal highway-funded chargers. Section 680.100 says Part 680 applies to "projects funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and projects for the construction of publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) chargers that are funded with funds made available under Title 23, United States Code." Section 680.108(b) reads: "Chargers must conform to Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 1.6J or higher. By February 28, 2024, chargers must conform to OCPP 2.0.1." Section 680.108(d) adds that chargers "must be designed to securely switch charging network providers without any changes to hardware," which is the lock-in rule in regulatory form. We read the regulation text on the Cornell Legal Information Institute site and through the eCFR renderer; FHWA's NEVI page (updated February 5, 2026) lists interim final guidance dated August 11, 2025, which we could not read, so confirm with your state NEVI office that nothing there changes these sections. See NEVI and the second round of grants.
California Energy Commission. The uptime reporting section of the CEC's EV charger data and reliability standards page says a networked charger "installed on or after September 28, 2026, must report using the OCPP 2.0.1 protocol and transmit the Hourly Charger Data Reporting Specification." That section applies to publicly funded fast chargers installed on or after January 1, 2024 that do not exclusively serve fleets, and a separate network-provider enrollment requirement applies to "publicly or rate payer funded, networked DCFCs" installed on or after September 28, 2026. The page also lists proposed revisions (docket 22-EVI-04) and does not give a Title 20 section number in its text, so read the full regulation before relying on this summary. The CEC page ties its certification language to the charging network provider's software: a "Subset Certification of the Charging Station Management System" in the Alliance's program. We did not find CEC text naming the Core or Advanced Security profiles for chargers.
CALeVIP Window 2. This program is stricter about the equipment. Its September 18, 2026 manual requires certification by the Open Charge Alliance to OCPP 2.0.1 or later and names the Core and Advanced Security profiles as the minimum certificates, as covered in our Window 2 equipment guide and the broader CALeVIP window overview.
Private sites. We found no federal or California rule that requires 2.0.1 at a site paid for entirely with private money. Utility programs, state grants, and landlord or lender requirements can still impose it, so read the terms of anything you apply for before you specify hardware.
What to put in the specification
- Require OCPP 2.0.1 on new hardware, with the Core profile at minimum and Advanced Security if you want encrypted, authenticated links. Add Smart Charging if you plan to use load management, and ISO 15118 support if you want Plug and Charge. On the Alliance's certification pages, Core is mandatory and Advanced Security, Smart Charging and ISO 15118 Support are options.
- Ask for the certificate number. The Alliance says its certificates are issued only by the Alliance, and numbers follow the format OCA.xxxx.xxxx.CS for a charging station or .CSMS for management software. Look the number up on the Alliance's certified products page. Its own guidance: "If the certificate isn't on the list, it is probably not an official certificate."
- Match the certificate to the product. Certification covers a named product designation and software version. A certificate for a sibling model or an older firmware does not cover what you are buying. Ask the vendor to confirm in writing that the model and firmware you will receive match the certificate.
- Certify both ends. The charger and the management platform each need to support the version you are using. A 2.0.1 charger paired with a platform that only speaks 1.6 will not work.
- If you must buy 1.6 hardware, get the 2.0.1 upgrade path, date and price in the contract, and the right to switch software providers at no hardware cost. Include these terms in any charging-as-a-service agreement as well.
For the wider future-proofing checklist, including conduit, panel capacity and connectors, see Future-Proofing Your Commercial EV Charging Installation.
Last factually verified: November 9, 2026 against the Open Charge Alliance's protocol page, FAQ, certification program page, OCPP 1.6 and 2.0.1 certification pages, and certificate verification page (openchargealliance.org; the pages carry no publication dates); 23 CFR 680.100 and 680.108 (Cornell Legal Information Institute and the eCFR renderer; no dates shown); the California Energy Commission's EV Charger Data and Reliability Standards page (energy.ca.gov; lists a September 24, 2026 hearing, proposed revisions in docket 22-EVI-04 that would partially exempt Megawatt Charging System chargers); the FHWA NEVI page (updated February 5, 2026); and the CALeVIP Fast Charge California Project 2 Implementation Manual (September 18, 2026). Not read: the August 11, 2025 FHWA interim final NEVI guidance (the PDF would not extract), the CEC's full regulatory text (hosted elsewhere), the Alliance's OCPP 2.1 certification page, and the Alliance's certificate register entries (the page loaded without its entries). The Alliance does not publish deployment shares, so we give none. We state no hardware or upgrade prices because none were found.
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