EV Fast-Charging Standards In Flux

savuporo writes "With the first battery electric vehicles becoming available on markets worldwide, there is an increased push to establish standards for fast-charging plugs. Unfortunately, the story is far from simple. The US hopes to establish its own DC fast-charging standard by 2012, and Europe cannot come to an agreement about their version. Meanwhile, the CHAdeMO fast-charge standard developed and widely deployed in Japan, used on both the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi MiEV, is gaining momentum with deployments underway both in the US and Europe. CHAdeMO is limited to a 62kW charge rate, able to charge smaller battery packs to 80% SoC in 15-30 minutes."

For those of you playing at home

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you playing at home, SoC stands for 'State of Charge'.

Re:Multiple standards can coexist

[xMrFishx]

As long as you have a Max1KV connector, a Max3KV connector etc you can mix standards. If you have identical connectors you lead to the Petrol in a Diesel tank problem where connecting a substantially higher voltage to a car that can not transform or handle safely, potentially damaging the car's electrical infrastructure.

Re:Multiple standards can coexist

[Rei]

EV charge connectors are *far* more intelligent than gas nozzles. Ever see an EV charge connector and wondered why there are so many pins? There's sense pins, data pins, etc; there's a bidirectional communication which makes sure the connector is fully secure and that the type of power being delivered is compatible with the vehicle before it is actually delivered.

Re:Minor problem

[Rei]

LOL. Okay, let's start from the very beginning.

1) Oil makes up a tiny percentage of our electricity generation -- low single digits. Most incremental power in the US these days (new capacity being added) is natural gas and wind.

2) According to a PNL/DOE study, 84% of our vehicles could be switched over today without building any new power plants. The reason is because most EV charging is done at night, when we have huge surplus generation capacity

3) There is little to no need for new bulk distribution, for the same reason as #2. Only local distribution infrastructure may need upgrades when there's high penetration in particular neighborhoods for home charging.