Reston, Virginia-based Electrify America, which is building a coast-to-coast network of electric vehicle charging stations, has submitted a design for an Emoji that represents an electric vehicle being charged up.
Emojis may be fun, but the process of getting new ones approved is serious business. It starts with a formal proposal to the Unicode Consortium, the governing body for Emoji creation, in this case for “Electric Vehicle with Charger.”
“You have to provide information that makes it apparent to the consortium that there is evidence of frequency of use and that it would be a popular Emoji,” said Mike Moran of Electrify America.
“A Unicode technical committee meets, and they look at it and they may accept some as candidates, they may be declined, or they may be returned for more work,” he said.
The company contends there is a good chance that an EV charging Emoji would become increasingly popular.
“More than 40 million Americans said they would consider an EV for their next car. So we really think this Emoji is significant and we think it is going to be used,” Moran said.
The design of the Emoji is purposefully generic, so as not to represent a particular vehicle or charging network company, in other words, an unbranded Emoji.
Electrify America has a Change,org petition where those who want to support an EV charging Emoji can sign on.
There are currently more than 3,000 officially sanctioned Emojis, according to Emojipedia, including about 230 that have been approved this year.
The most frequently-used Emoji is the Smiling Face with Tears of Joy, followed by Red Heart, Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes, Thinking Face and Fire.
