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SAE announces the 'official' charging plug standard for North America

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Blurry_Eyed

MS Sig #267, MX Sig # 761
Dec 29, 2011
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FYI - This Is Officially How You'll Be Fueling Your Car In The Future

The article is pretty thin on details, but I'm sure poking around the internet will pull up the specs on this plug. I personally think it is pretty ugly from a looks standpoint, but that's highly subjective. The article comments on possibly reducing charge times to 20 minutes, so it must delivery a lot of power.

Here is another article from the NY Times that gives a better picture and sense of the size of the thing. It looks pretty big and bulky.

Wheelies: The Empowered Edition - NYTimes.com

One more link with some additional pictures: Society of Automotive Engineers announces electric car charging plug standard

I personally think the Tesla charge plug is a much better looking solution...
 
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I'd really like to see the SAE, CHAdeMO and the Tesla connectors in one picture to compare shape and size.

I've used the CHAdeMO charger plug for my Leaf and it is pretty huge. Think the size of a small fire hose as the end of the CHAdeMO charger. The Tesla Model S charger plug is more like the size of about a maybe 1.5 to 2 times the size of a garden hose. Also the weight on the CHAdeMO end is pretty heavy compared to the Model S charge plug. The SAE plug looks to be near the size of the CHAdeMO from the NY Time picture, but it does taper down quickly from being really big at it's end. The CHAdeMO is really like lugging around a fire hose end.
 
Elephant plug

original.jpg
View attachment Tesla plug 2 crop.bmp
Cheetah Plug
 
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Maybe it's some kind of male ego with the SAE engineers trying to make a statement about their connector vs. the Tesla connector :smile:

Not to imply that there aren't women engineers, but my sterotype is that the SAE is dominated by male engineers...
 
Here are the specs. DC Level 2 is rated up to 100 kW which on the surface seems to cover the SuperCharger rating of 90 kW, but they've also listed max current of 200A. The SuperCharger is estimated to be 360V @ 250A, which is above the DC L2 spec.

Also interesting that they estimate the 20 min charge time with a 25kWh pack (20% to 80%). Who is going to do a road trip in a BEV with a 25kWh pack?

SAE J1772.PNG
 
Here are the specs. DC Level 2 is rated up to 100 kW which on the surface seems to cover the SuperCharger rating of 90 kW, but they've also listed max current of 200A. The SuperCharger is estimated to be 360V @ 250A, which is above the DC L2 spec.

Also interesting that they estimate the 20 min charge time with a 25kWh pack (20% to 80%). Who is going to do a road trip in a BEV with a 25kWh pack?

View attachment 10784


... and at the end of the first half, it's Functionality 10, Aesthetics 0, on the Westwood One, EV radio network ....
 
I wouldn't even give it a "10" for Functionality. J1772 doesn't appear to support 3-phase charging, which is a real short-fall for much of Europe. Or am I missing something?
Well you're missing that they'll use the type-2 version of the connector in Europe. Type-1 and type-2 versions of the combo connector are agreed to have the safe communication protocols and the same envelope so that manufacturers can put in the region appropriate connector.
 
Agreed, from a mechanical standpoint, using the gun grip shape will cause people to use it like a petrol station and will pull away with force on the handle which will most likely end up causing fit issues and eventually cause the plug/connection to wear out quickly (I'm guessing stronger individuals will crack/break either the male or female end)

I much prefer TM's straight handle so as to allow the force to be straight out of the plug. The fit from cinergi's videos really show how tight it is currently and so I'm guessing having a pair of leather driving gloves is going to serve yet another purpose in an EV.