"We have a lot of problems with different standards around the world already," says Josef Krammer, team leader for charging systems at BMW. "We deliver our vehicles everywhere, and it's very difficult if we have to adapt our charging systems for each region."
According to Krammer, although CHAdeMO works, its major drawback is that it requires a second charging port in addition to the 110- to 240-volt AC port—which drives up both space and cost requirements. In addition, SAE's Byk says that CHAdeMO uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with coming smart grid technologies. Also, it is less safe because instead of relying on the physical contact with the ground to shunt short circuits, it relies on a ground fault interrupt, which monitors the line for imbalanced loads and shuts it off if it senses a surge. It is like the difference between having an alternate pipe for the sewage to drain into (physically grounded) and having a way to shut off a burst sewage pipe (ground fault interrupt).
Gaining a competitive advantage
Even so, Nissan says that CHAdeMO meets the needs of electric car drivers now and into the future. "As of today, CHAdeMO is the only proved DC quick-charging system," says Hideaki Watanabe, corporate vice president, Nissan Motor Co. "We are working with our partners to deploy CHAdeMO throughout the world, and we didn't want to take a 'wait and see' approach. We wanted to be a proactive player and deploy fast charging solutions now."
The existence of multiple standards may not actually be a big deal, says Pike Research's Gartner. "The real losers are the carmakers who are waiting to provide fast-charging support while their Japanese competitors increase market share," he adds.
What effect will it have on adoption rates?
Gartner envisions a future where both standards exist as parallel options. "Because of its penetration rates CHAdeMO won't ever become obsolete," he says. "Just because SAE says they are making a global universal standard doesn't mean the Japanese manufacturers are going to switch." As Gartner sees it, manufacturers will want to take advantage of the infrastructure that is already in place. "If there are already hundreds of stations on the ground—soon to be thousands—why wouldn't a manufacturer choose that option?" he asks.
But BMW does not think this parallel-option scenario will work. "Over the long term, I don't think that multiple standards can co-exist in one region," Krammer says. He cites the need for uniformity between all vehicles and convenient consumer access as the major reasons for this. SAE's Byk agrees, and says that the convenience of universal plug format, coupled with the majority of manufacturers adopting it in the long term will likely force the market to move away from CHAdeMO.
Regardless of whether one DC fast-charging standard wins, in the short term the controversy is sure to cause some confusion in marketplace, although Gartner does not think it will have much of an effect on adoption of electric cars. "The typical consumer still can't distinguish between hybrids and electric cars," he says. "If that basic distinction is still missing, then the DC fast-charging issue is one that means very little in terms of market adoption rates of electric cars in general."
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Add CommentSince Nissan was the first to come out with the supercharge stations and they seem to work just fine and they have already spread them around the world. SAE should stop being so stupid and causing problems and delays in the market and adapt to Nissan's supercharge technology. Nissan is already there and proven to work, so why does SAE want to do an about face on an already proven technology. SAE can implement their beliefs into charging stations powered by solar panels. Let the people decide which technology is best...Nissan's or SAE's. With Nissan's technology, you can supercharge your car from home. With SAE's, you have to push your drained car over to a DC station...probably miles away from where your car went dead.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think I will go with Nissan and they can put one of their supercharge stations in the trunk of their car and I will install it in my garage and charge my Nissan Leaf from home and if I run low on power while out on the road, I know Nissan will have a supercharge station installed on the road close by.
Almost every gas station in the country already sells two varieties of gasoline (plus a mix of the two), plus often diesel and sometimes propane. I don't see why they could not have two or more charging options.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisskiphuffman is correct and here in California they make the gas stations change out systems every couple of years to meet knew requirements. So as long as a station has a power supply changing chord ends should be even easier they can even have more then one just like stations that have diesel and gas. Better yet who needs gas stations the California building code already gives a builder credit for building charging stations into their parking plans and since large commercial building already have massive power supplies that a gas station wouldn't we can by-pass them completely
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's great how the entire article basically disproves its own alarmist headline. The adoption of electric cars isn't threatened by this charging standard disagreement any more than the adoption of next-generation home video was threatened with the competition between blu-ray and HD-DVD. CHAdeMO has an early start, but the SAE standard MAY or MAY NOT offer better safety and lower costs. Until SAE finalizes the standard, electric cars will either be CHAdeMO-compatible or they won't use level III charging. Besides, probably 90% of charging or more will happen at home with the J-1772 that everyone has pretty much adopted already.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat article, even if the comments don't quite get it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is perhaps worth pointing out the benefits of Chevy's approach with the Volt. The Volt charges with the J1772 connector and no DC fast charging. Frankly the Volt doesn't need DC fast charging because it can always turn on the gasoline engine for longer distances. Therefore, slow charging overnight with J1772 is perfectly satisfactory for Chevy.
My wife and I have been driving electric for three years, putting in over 39,000 pure electric miles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe bought our first EV, a used 2002 Toyota RAV4-EV, in July of 2008. It has a 100-mile range and uses a wacky charging standard which is not available in public stations within 500 miles of our house. Despite a total lack of charging options outside our garage, the RAV4-EV became our primary vehicle as soon as we got it, and it accounts for the majority of our electric miles.
After getting our second vehicle, a Tesla Roadster with a 240-mile range and support for 240V charging near the top of the J1772 Level 2 standard, we found all of our driving needs were covered. We sold our last gas vehicle once we were sure we didn't need a gas car to meet our driving needs.
In our experience, electric vehicles are awesome for local driving even with no public charging infrastructure at all.
We made the complete conversion for gas to pure electric vehicles without ever needing a DC Quick Charge station. Not everyone will be able to do this, but lack of DC Quick Charging is not a barrier to EV adoption for local driving. Since 60% of Americans have multiple cars and a garage where charging can occur at home, there are tens of millions of households that could be doing their daily driving in an EV, with a conventional or hybrid vehicle for longer trips.
The first few models of electric vehicles don't have to meet every driving need to be successful, any more than any single gas-burning model needs to meet every driving need.
If it takes a year or two for the DC Quick Charging standard to get settled, that's not a barrier to the automakers selling all of the EVs they can produce in the meantime. That said, if SAE wants to improve on the CHAdeMO standard, they better hurry up and do it.
Swappable batteries need to become part of the mix.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1-Swap out in less than a minute.
2-Solar charging of these batteries allows for overcast or cloudy days. It gives the consumer other options which include a second or third charged battery.
3-Certainly commercial establishments similar to the gas stations of today can and will be used to swap out batteries. These stations would have hundreds ready based on a precharging strategy that takes full advantage of sunny days to "get ahead of the charging curve".
Having solar rooftops accomplish may at least 3 things.
1-Free charging for the lift of the vehicle.
2-Controlling the cost, Consumer owns the rooftop unit an is not affected by price increases.
3-The strain on the grid will be watered down and transmission costs will be lowered overall.
The cost for these units that incorporate solar ink type products will continue coming down at an extremely fast rate,, The solar ink processes now in the works in several countries is fascinating.
I do hope, that the different manufacturer of electric cars agree on one design worldwide so the cars can be connected to the power supply wherever it is. Remember the many different handy power supplies ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr.Kamlander@aon.at