CHAdeMO ANNOUNCES HIGH POWER (150KW) chargers

By the time we finally get the first public ~50 kW DC chargers up here in North California, they will already be obsolescent...

CHAdeMO ANNOUNCES HIGH POWER (150KW) VERSION OF THE PROTOCOL

CHAdeMO Association releases 150kW amendment to the current protocol this year
First product installations expected in 2017, fully compatible with CHAdeMO EVs on the road
Higher power (350kW) technical study ongoing in anticipation of market demand

...The Association plans to release an amendment to the current protocol, which will enable charging with up to 150kW (350A), this year...

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...

We expect first 150kW standardised chargers to be deployed in 2017.”...

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http://www.chademo.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-06-01_High_power_CHAdeMO.pdf

This is good news. 150 will make a huge difference, and is really what they should have designed in the first place. It makes little difference for the Leaf since the battery controller will not likely let any more power in, but it will make a difference for my conversion car.

palmermd said:

This is good news. 150 will make a huge difference, and is really what they should have designed in the first place...

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What is important is that the standard was designed for 150 kW (and higher) from the beginning.

Until utilities reform their demand charges, I think it's unlikely we'll see many 150kW chargers in the USA, since BEV drivers will probably not want to pay the high $/kWh such high charge rates would require.

Even if I had a BEV that could accept ~150 kW, I'd much prefer to be planning a drive along a route having a public charge station with three 50 kW plugs, to one having a single station with one 150 kW plug.

I guess in time for the release of Gen 2 leaf.

Gosh, I wonder what the battery degradation will be with that?!

evnow said:

I guess in time for the release of Gen 2 leaf.

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24-30kWh battery can mostly go up to 50kW charge rate.
60kWh can go kinda to 100kW for a pretty short time period.
Normal cars with normal cooling systems and 2016 battery chemistries can go up to 120-140kW in not hot weather
even if battery is 100kWh.

Heat buildup is so rapid (charging efficiency is not 100%) that heat can't be extracted fast enough so battery
does not overheat during first 10 minutes even with AC compressor and fans and pumps at 100% (check out Teslas in hot weather at SC).

I believe 500km/h charge rate is fast enough for cars. It would be awesome to sustain that for 2/3 of the whole charge cycle.
Going above that requires either offboard cooling system or additional cooling capacity ONLY for charging (and there is no room under the hood).

Whatever chargers are available, without 100kWh+ battery pack it is not possible to utilize 150kW charge rate with Li-ion batteries.

evnow said:

I guess in time for the release of Gen 2 leaf.

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I doubt it, but its all in the taper.

small steps.

1st - make an inferior (to heat) battery with Chademo capability (50 kW-ish)

2nd - tweek chemistry in inferior battery to kinda work better with high temps.

3rd - make a slightly larger inferior battery to actually go 100 miles-ish.

4th - get Chademo to output 150kW using same connector, just different utility feed

5th - finally, finally, get a decent TMS for a larger 200-mile battery and very decent high power fast charging and compete with Model 3 for long-distance EV travel. Oh, and get to installing these on major routes thru-out the world every 150 miles or so.

Go Nissan? They can do this, right? Will they? Are they doing this and not tipping their cap to the "secret" plan?

Well, I'm a Leaf lover. LOVE my Leaf, inferior and all! But the next step was revealed over 2 months ago. Keep working the problem Nissan. Compete or watch 400,000 potential customers go somewhere else.

Just like 60kWh batteries are now the baseline for EVs, 150KW fast chargers are also the becoming the baseline standard with VW/Audi announcing last summer their intention to launch a network of SAE combo chargers in time for the Audi eTon vehicles due in 2018-2019, as well as Tesla's private network.

It is good to see the natural evolution of both vehicle and infrastructure capabilities moving along.

OrientExpress said:

Just like 60kWh batteries are now the baseline for EVs, 150KW fast chargers are also the becoming the baseline standard ...

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~2C maximum charge rates may not be a permanent limitation on BEVs.

For example, a BEV with 40 kWh or 50 kWh pack might be able to use the full ~150 kW for some fraction of its charge cycle, in the future.

As batteries get cheaper and more resistant to degradation, many BEV drivers may choose to charge at higher rates when they are in a hurry, and want to pay for the high rate, AND if their BEV manufacturer allows it.

Of course, if other BEV manufactures follow Nissan's lead and add capacity warrantees to their vehicles, we should expect our charge rate options to remain more limited, to satisfy the vehicle manufacturer's desire to limit their warrantee costs.