CHAdeMO Working On High Power Charging Solutions.
The war of the EV charging systems is heating up. Today, there are three high-power charging standards. Tesla has it proprietary Supercharger network. The CHAdeMO standard is the one used most often by Japanese manufacturers. The CSS standard is preferred by most American and European manufacturers.
At the moment, CHAdeMO leads in one important area, according to a report from the CHAdeMO Association. The latest data says 33% of new EVs are equipped with CHAdeMO charging, 15% are built to use the Tesla Supercharger network, and 9% are designed with CCS in mind. A surprise in the report is that 38% of battery-electric cars offer no fast-charging capability at all. For PHEVs, 25% are equipped for CHAdeMO charging while 75% do not support fast charging of any kind.
Among manufacturers, Volvo has recently called for one world standard, which it says would lower costs and make customers less nervous about buying an electric car. Tesla sells an adapter that allows its drivers to plug into a CHAdeMO charger, but it also has quietly joined the CSS partnership.
[D]uring CHAdeMO's annual General Assembly in Tokyo, Japan, the Association's management has announced its plans and ongoing activities towards bringing high power CHAdeMO chargers to the market.
The Association plans to release an amendment to the current protocol, which will enable charging with up to 150kW (350A), this year. The revision of the protocol, announced to the Regular Members already last year, is still ongoing with technical consultations with members happening both in and outside of Japan.
Recognising that the upward trend in EV autonomy will lead to a need for charging with higher power at key locations, especially along the motorways, CHAdeMO mandated its Technical Work Group to tackle issues such as the size of the high power cable or managing temperature increase of the charger that may come in contact with users.
The 'plug' itself will remain exactly the same as the current one, meaning the high power CHAdeMO chargers can feed power to both the current EVs as well as the upcoming EVs with higher battery capacity. Current CHAdeMO EVs will also be able to use the 150kW charger, but as today's EVs are configured to charge at around 50kW, they will charge at the current speed.
CHAdeMO technical representatives are also actively involved in the IEC Committee working on high power charging, where, together with other international experts, they are preparing a revision of the DC high power standards, based on the IEC standards published in 2014.
The Association announcement went on to say, "In terms of higher power, for example 350kW (1 000V x 350A), technical studies are ongoing and the Association will determine its further development around 2018, should there be market demand."
Porsche has already said its Mission E 4-door electric sports car will support 800 volt charging. Since Porsche is part of Volkswagen, it is safe to assume that future cars from VW will also be capable of super-fast charging. Tesla is experimenting with glycol-cooled charging cables that will not overheat when higher voltages are applied.
Super-fast charging is being pursued aggressively in the world of commercial vehicles. It appears the passenger car segment is not far behind. From the beginning of the electric car revolution, which many claim began with the introduction of the Nissan LEAF in 2010, the time it takes to recharge an electric car has kept many potential customer from buying one. Who wants to hang around a charging station for an hour or so when conventional cars can gas and go in 5 minutes or fewer?
Faster charging speeds will go a long way toward overcoming customer resistance to electric cars.
Source: Inside EVs
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