TEPCO/CHAdeMO Level III "quick" charging station/connector

[Norbert]

Nissan Quickcharger: Half The Size At Half The Price | The Truth About Cars

According to an emailed statement by Nissan, “the newly-developed quick charging unit retains the high performance of the current quick charger manufactured by Nissan,” but will “take up less space and enable easier installation.” A final price is not set. However, Nissan says that the unit will “cost significantly less than one million yen,” and “the base specification unit will cost only below one half the price of the current unit.” That would be around $8.500 – in Japan, including tax.

The U.S. and Europe will get the charger at some point. Given high enough quantities, the price can drop considerably . A DC welder with similar ratings can be had for less that $1,000.

$1,000 ? Too good to be true? Well, $8,500 would already be a little bit of game changing...

[TEG]

http://www.ev-charging-infrastructur...1290790915.pdf

[Norbert]

http://www.ev-charging-infrastructur...1290790915.pdf

Interesting slides, I'll have to go though them when I have more time, but I already saw that CHAdeMO, by definition, includes the ability for the EV to adjust the charging rate according to the specific battery's best values. So, if the EV thinks that charging at 25 kW is better than at 50 kW, for example when the SOC is around 80%, it can adjust the charging rate.

[Norbert]

Nissan VP: Electric vehicle infrastructure is not as simple as

Palmer claims that Nissan's in-house quick-charger – when it launches in a couple of years – could take the industry by storm at a price of $3,000 to $4,000, down from the $40,000 that most quick-charge stations sell for today. At that sub-$4,000 price point, Palmer says Nissan's quick-charge unit could change the plug-in vehicle paradigm completely. The just-announced sub-$10,000 quick charger is a good start.

Sub-$4,000 will be huge.

[stopcrazypp]

Nissan VP: Electric vehicle infrastructure is not as simple as
Sub-$4,000 will be huge.

You still need a high power line, but it would make gas station type charging stations possible or at least make it so a company/business with a high power line seriously consider installing one of these vs a level 2 (as $3-4k is about what some of the higher end level 2 chargers cost).

Previously I was doing cost estimates using $50k per quick charger, with a 8 charger setup (akin to 8 pump station) costing $400k in charger costs. $3-4k will bring the cost of 8 chargers to $24-32k, less than what one typically costs now!

I'm hoping the chargers can be adapted to the new J1772-DC spec for the US market.

Another good question is if Nissan will bring the same kind of enthusiasm to reducing the cost of level 2 chargers. They will be what most EV buyers will have to deal with first when shopping for an EV.

[TEG]

http://www.newsroom.nissan-europe.co...?mediaid=83745

...ROLLE, Switzerland (20 September, 2011) - Nissan has teamed up with leading European utility and electrical vehicle supply equipment companies to speed development of cheaper, smaller, quick chargers for electric vehicle batteries, and accelerate the installation of publicly-available Quick Charge (QC) points across Europe.

This agreement between Nissan, Circutor, DBT, Efacec, Endesa and Siemens is expected to result in a dramatic reduction in the price of the units- by over half to under €10K- paving the way for businesses such as service stations, car park operators and retail outlets to install quick chargers and run them profitably as a commercial enterprise. This will mean Nissan LEAF drivers, and other quick charge enabled vehicles, could use their car for longer journeys and recharge the car's battery to 80% capacity in less that half an hour.

As a result, it is expected that there will now be thousands of QCs across Europe by the end of 2012, and tens of thousands by 2015. This infrastructure will open up Nissan LEAF ownership to a whole new spectrum of buyers who occasionally need to do longer journeys...

[Norbert]

http://www.newsroom.nissan-europe.co...?mediaid=83745

Notice also this bit:

Compliant with charging policies of European countries, the QCs are also AC quick charge ready to support the arrival of AC quick charging cars.

"AC quick charging" might be 44kW 3-phase. Wouldn't it be an interesting turn of events if CHAdeMO chargers also became a major provider of 44kW Mennekes?

[VolkerP]

eberhard will be delighted.

[TEG]

Ecotalitys Fast-Charging Units: Good News for Leaf Owners and (for Now) Nobody Else - NYTimes.com

...Ecotality, the E.V. infrastructure company, would begin next month rolling out roughly 200 fast-charge units across California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. The units feed 480 volts into a battery pack, giving cars like the Nissan Leaf an 80-percent charge level in less than 30 minutes...

(Funny that they mention "for Leaf only", then show a picture of an i-MiEV...)

[Norbert]

(Funny that they mention "for Leaf only", then show a picture of an i-MiEV...)[/I]

Well, it's good that someone reports at all. However, a bit funny also this sentence:

The trick is that the Nissan E.V. is the only mass-produced plug-in vehicle on the North American market that can accept the charge, because it is the only plug-in vehicle that currently conforms to an esoteric standard called Chademo.

As far as I know, it is the only fast charging standard being used at all, either in chargers or in EVs. There is nothing else, and the SAE "standard" is still being developed, without any announcements that it would be done soon. Given that the EVProject sees this as a "learning experience", it makes sense to me. How long are Leaf owners, most of them having a CHAdeMO port, supposed to wait for GM's standardization efforts? If at all?

There still isn't a single announcement form any Detroit based company to use any fast-charging at all, creating this paralyzing gap of absence regarding any infrastructure implementation, everyone secretly thinking "maybe that's exactly what they want"... I hope Tesla found a good way for the Model S to deal with the situation.