Ahead of world emoji day tomorrow, American electric vehicle charging provider, Electrify America, is having another stab at getting the Unicode Consortium to approve an EV charger emoji.
At present, the only emoji that has anything to do with powering or fueling a vehicle is the gas pump emoji: ⛽️. But times are changing, carmakers are transitioning to battery electric drivetrains and the automotive world is attempting to clean up its act.
The gas pump emoji’s days are numbered it would seem. With that, Electrify America is proposing an EV charging emoji to take its place. Take a look at it below:
“Pushing for an emoji that reflects the experiences of EV drivers is part of Electrify America’s goal to increase EV awareness and adoption, and support the transition to a cleaner energy future – a shift that will have impact on Americans and people around the world,” said Rich Steinberg, director of marketing and communications at Electrify America.
[Read: Apple CarKey is out, but you’ll need a new BMW to use it]
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Last year, Electrify America first tried to get its EV emoji idea off the ground, but was unsuccessful. Apparently the folks over at the Unicode Consortium, the gatekeepers of the emoji world, didn’t like their proposed idea. Here it is:
The first attempt is too busy for an emoji if you ask me. With two connectors the charger is overly complicated, and there’s no need to have a car as part of it. Thankfully Electrify America seems to have taken the Unicode Consortium’s feedback on board and isn’t letting last year’s outcome hold them back.
“The new ‘EV Charger’ emoji design takes feedback from the committee into account, streamlining the emoji to focus on solely the charger,” the company said in a statement.
The charging company even set up a Change.org petition that you can sign if you want to support the cause.
Electrify America isn’t alone in its quest to get EV emoji approved and into the wild.
Earlier this year, a Polish electric vehicle advocate group submitted a similar proposal. Like Electrify America’s, their emoji focuses just on the charger and is quite a simple approach that clearly displays what it intends to.
The Unicode Consortium continually reviews and adds new emoji when it sees fit. While it’s understandable that pro-EV groups want emoji to support their activities, whether the rest of the digital world needs it right now is another question.
With the electric vehicles growing in popularity, it certainly seems like we should get an EV charging emoji someday — perhaps when most of the cars on the roads are electric. But I doubt the Unicode Consortium will ever get rid of the gas pump emoji, I mean, we still have the floppy disk one for crying out loud.
HT – InsideEVs
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