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Nissan is to donate 400 electric car quick chargers

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Quick charge, free of charge: Nissan gives EV owners more flexibility | Pure-Driving.co.uk powered by Nissan

In the UK, Nissan has put in a bid for 65 chargers which would be strategically located at selected service stations along the motorway network, creating a ‘pathway’ on major routes across the UK.

Contact has already been made with the three largest motorway service station chains who have a total of 100 stations across the country.

In addition, Quick Chargers would be located in some city centres and other key locations such as airports.
 
Sure, Tesla can do much better! (Right...)

No, it's no 90kW, but I'm happy with 50kW charging. 30 min of charging still gives ~130km of range.

It would be so silly if the Model S would not accept Chademo and could not take advantage of these 400(!) chargers.
 
I'm happy to report that we have formally submitted our proposals to Nissan for the 65 quick chargers to be donated to a community owned entity that will ensure EV drivers are central to the UK's national charging network.

If you think community ownership is worthwhile then you might like to tell Nissan :smile:

I'd like to thank David Peilow for his excellent work in creating this proposal on behalf of ZCW.
 
I've been 'radio silent' following our meeting because I had hoped that some of the topics we discussed 'off the record' would have been public knowledge by now…. anyway, while we wait, we do have some good news that we can share following our Meeting with Nissan...

As your probably aware, in the first quarter of next year ~65 Nissan DC Chargers will be donated to key locations around the UK. The locations chosen are designed to allow Leaf drivers to easily travel along major routes with 24/7 access, no cost for 12 months, and with an installed life of 5+ years.

Nissan have produced a UK map of target locations that is very similar to that published by David Peilow and used in the ZCW proposals for a national fast charge network;

http://www.leaftalk.co.uk/showthread.php/4838-Nissan-is-to-donate-400-electric-car-quick-chargers?p=11848&viewfull=1#post11848

While I can't share details of the sites chosen by Nissan at this time I have no doubt that you will be pleased with many that have been selected.

The deployment of ~65 chargers will be followed by an aggressive push to sell 4-5,000 per year using the low cost hardware announced by Nissan on 30th November. In Europe Nissan expect this charger to retail "well below" €10,000 for the outdoor version.

Interestingly, the low cost charger has no 'back office' capability and it's clear from our discussions that Nissan are fully aware of UK EV drivers desire to use PAYG services without subscriptions…. I can't really say much more about that now :wink:

Lots more will emerge during the first part of next year… at this time I suggest we let Nissan run with the deployment of ~65 chargers and get ready to step in should they lose their way :smile:
 
a few more tantalising details... View attachment 4259

Thanks!

Neat to see the electrical topologies of these big DC quick chargers. Looks like the DC output has to be electrically isolated from the mains AC supply for safety reasons (is this a CHAdeMO requirement?). So, you have to convert 3-phase 50-60Hz line AC to a high-frequency variable-voltage AC, use a transformer for electrical isolation (and fixed voltage conversion as needed), then a rectifier bridge and filtering components to generate the DC to send to the car. More complicated than most would initially assume.

Interesting that they are changing the AC/AC conversion internals. Going to an AC/AC direct matrix frequency converter front-end, instead of a more traditional AC/DC/AC converter. Eliminates a capacitor in that intermediate DC stage (large, bulky, limited lifespan), as well as some mains input filtering (large, heavy inductors). Also looks like they consider the output DC capacitor as optional or not as important now (dotted lines in second schematic). All of which results in a charger that's about half the size of the original.
 
Here's one of Nissan's new style quick chargers being installed at Abingdon, near Oxford. It was spied by one of the guys on Ampera Owners Club.

I managed to find which corner of the car park they'd hidden the charger in Abingdon Waitrose and the Polar post was in use charging a Nissan Leaf. There were also a couple of engineers fixing up the Nissan fast charger, I didn't ask but suspect maybe it was their Leaf.

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As far as I know, this is the first of the new cheaper units to be installed in the wild (I've seen pictures of some at Nissan's UK HQ).