Should we be thinking about standardized everything for plug-in vehicles?
AutoblogGreen reader Michael V. is worried. With all of the work being done on plug-in vehicles by automakers large and small, he thinks a slew of propriety batteries, chargers and plugs will effectively kill (well, at least hurt) the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles. Instead of just worrying, though, Michael wrote an open letter to the auto industry, which he sent to us and we've pasted after the jump, about this issue. While Michael is certainly onto something with the thought that incompatible plugs could pose a problem for, say, GM-Ford families (for example), he's missing one detail. The beauty of a plug-in system is that we don't need to come up with a new standardized plug agreement; there already is a standard plug. Whatever device you're reading this post on uses it. The issue, though, is the high-speed chargers (like the one from Tesla Motors, pictured), which are not standardized. Considering the complexity of these systems - and the simple fact that there is so much potential variety in battery types and chemistry and sizes that PHEVs and BEVs can use - calling for a standard at this point seems quixotic, to say the least. A good idea, and certainly customer friendly, but perhaps something to keep on the back burner for now. Let's get these vehicles on the road first. They will have a "standard" plug from day one, and we can all live with that.
Michael's letter (minor typos edited:
An open letter to the auto industry,
I have seen lots of articles about just about every auto maker having plans for plug-in hybrid or all electric vehicles. I think this is great I am 100% supportive of shifting some or all of the burden of producing energy for transportation away from gasoline.
One huge request though, please act soon to create and adopt an industry-wide standard for power supplies, plugs, and battery packs. I am a software developer and follow developments in the computer industry closely. I know that standards for interfaces like this can take years to be developed and agreed upon between all parties, much less come to market. It disturbs me that I haven't heard anything about this crucial step to implementation.
I'm sure you have experienced what a clusterf**k it is to change cell phones, laptops, or other gadgets. Every phone has a different plug and every time you change phone's you need to buy new accessories like different car chargers for the plug and whenever you travel you have to bring the charger with you.
There will never be infrastructure to support remote "refueling/charging" if there is no standard. People without enough garage space will not be able to charge their car outside if they have to leave a power supply, which might cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, outside and vulnerable to theft. Building the power supply/inverter into the vehicle might be possible but it may add weight and should still have a standardized interface to keep costs low since it will probably represent a relatively high failure rate, consistent with other electronic equipment. I don't want to go to visit my parents house and not be able to plug-in at their place because we drive different cars.
No one would drive anywhere if they had to go to a Toyota, GM, Ford, VW, Honda, etc... gas station. So there should probably also be a standard interface for battery packs like there are for AA, AAA, C, and D batteries. If I drive and need to "refuel" on the road, I should be able to stop at a battery station and swap out the car's battery or batteries in a few minutes to continue my trip. Even if their are 2 or 3 standard sizes and capacities, it will be manageable, but if every model has a different battery it will be impossible to do this.
Getting together and working out a set of standards, which is open or cheap to license, would be a very strong signal to the world that the automotive industry is serious about making the next generation of vehicles work for the future. I hope that the DOE, DOT, ISO and the Press can help with this issue to make sure that it happens.
Thanks,
Michael
[Source: Michael V.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Peter Wang 11:32AM (6/16/2008)
Here is a charger feature that I think should be made standard... timed charging.
That is, you get home at 6 pm, during peak demand in the summer. You should be able to plug in the charger, then it doesn't start charging until 10 pm or so. All of these times should be user-programmable, like a thermostat.
The risk is that you forget to charge it, or if you charge it at 6 pm you and every other EV user will bring the electric grid down.
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HydroWizard 11:42AM (6/16/2008)
Sebastian, I think Michael was referring to the plug that connects the cable to the car, not the cable to the electrical outlet.
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BlackbirdHighway 11:44AM (6/16/2008)
Timed charging is already built into the Tesla. The car, that is, not the charger. In fact, the Tesla can be charged from a standard 110 or 220 outlet, because the vehicle carries all the required charging circuits, including the timer. It just charges faster with the specialized charger.
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TIMMAH! 11:46AM (6/16/2008)
Well isn't this going to kill the whole car plug adapter market for Radioshack?
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Wave54 12:10PM (6/16/2008)
For standard trickle charging, the home electrical outlet is already the standard, though I would agree with the concern over quick chargers being proprietary. It's an issue that should be dealt with now, not put on the back burner, or we can guarantee all sorts of incompatability.
The early adopters won't mind the limited range and 4-8 hour recharge times, but the mainstream and those who drive the furthest distance and use the most fuel today will need a public charging system.
This link is for an article that's 12 years old, but it still applies today.
"Electric Cars in Need of Public Charging"
http://www.greencar.com/perspective/electric-charging/
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snm.grr 12:21PM (6/16/2008)
I call Horse Pucky. A call for a standard quick charger is NOT invalid because the author has ignored the fact that our homes support 110 and 220 VAC - any rapids charger will have to deal with some variation of that input, period. Put the specialized electronics and/or transformers in the car, unless they weigh so much they impact the performance or pose a safety problem. I could, of course, be missing something :)
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Richard 2:24PM (6/16/2008)
What if you are at a restaurant and would like to take advantage of an opportunity charge? All those different charging plugs would make it hard to do.
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GoodCheer 1:06PM (6/16/2008)
I hereby propose that the standard charging format be a NEMA 14-50 socket. You already have one or two in your house for you electric dryer or you electric stove. There are tens of thousands already scattered around the country in RV parks.
They can support 10kW charging (about 40 miles range/hour), which may not be fast enough for true "Fast Charging", but given that the plugs and the infrastructure distributing power to them ARE ALREADY IN PLACE it seems like a natural fit.
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Rob O. 2:21PM (6/16/2008)
And while we're at it, maybe we can finally be done with those crappy old 12-volt power ports a.k.a. "cigarette lighter" outlets (a.k.a. ANSI/SAE J563) in our cars? A few select cars have had on-board standard 115V power outlets for several years. Let's get this going as an industry standard already!
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Bill 2:40PM (6/16/2008)
I'm with Michael. As the article linked by Wave54 pointed out, we've already been through this back when the Saturn EV1 and Toyota RAV4 EV (and I think a Honda EV, though memory fails me) were available. Public charging stations had to have two or more different chargers to enable "quick charging" of EVs. Now imagine there are dozens of models, each with their own connector/charging method. Public charging stations become untenable.
Ideally, I like Michael's suggestion of standardized quick-change battery packs. This would actually make long-distance travel in EVs possible. Either that, or we need Iron Man's chest-mounted reactor. :-)
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GoodCheer 3:17PM (6/16/2008)
... And on the topic of "Chargers", all (or almost all) highway speed EVs use an AC induction motor. So the motor controller and needs to be able to convert DC (from the battery) into AC for the motor anyway. If there is regen braking, then it needs to be able to convert AC from the motor back into DC as well.
If you have the ability to rectify AC and charge the battery from regen anyway, why the hell would you duplicate that [expensive] power electronics unit as a separate charger? The power line from your car to the wall should be AC, and all the expensive stuff should be part of the car, since the car needs it anyway.
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paulwesterberg 3:18PM (6/16/2008)
He's right about the battery packs, they should be broken up into separate 3-5lb cells that can be replaced individually so you can remove/recycle cells that fail prematurely. The battery management computer should track cells ability to hold & maintain charge. Once the size/connectors & voltage is standardized it should be easy for owners to replace their own cells. They could even incrementally upgrade to new "high performance" batteries that would last longer or allow greater range.
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Richard 3:21PM (6/16/2008)
Just thinking though, just like foreign power converters, we could just have a bunch of adaptors for each plug in the car with us!
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meme 3:39PM (6/16/2008)
Michael:
Battery packs' charging needs will never be universally standardized, and any attempt to mandate a standard will fail within a few years due to changing technology and the different needs of different manufacturers' vehicles. The tech is improving too rapidly, and each vehicle, pack, and even cell type imposes different demands. That's an unrealistic proposition, and you hurt your argument by making it. Also:
"I'm sure you have experienced what a clusterf**k it is to change cell phones, laptops, or other gadgets. Every phone has a different plug and every time you change phone's you need to buy new accessories like different car chargers for the plug and whenever you travel you have to bring the charger with you."
There's already an answer out there, and Westinghouse has committed to supporting it (other manufacturers are expected to follow suit): Green Plug. Basically, it's DC adapter hub with a bidirectional communication port on each cable that learns what voltage the device wants, then supplies it. When the device finishes drawing, it tells the adapter, and the adapter shuts down so there are no phantom loads.
Cell phones don't use different adapters for the fun of it**. They use different adapters because each device has different needs. The same applies to EVs.
Back to fast charging. We do need a fast charging standard, since that requires fixed in-place infrastructure and I would recommend this: a universal charger modelled on the "Green Plug" universal adapter concept. That is to say, you have a bidirectional communication port built into the charger. The vehicle describes what kind of power it needs to be fed at any point in time. If the charger isn't capable of providing said power, it flags an error and lets the user know. I'd like to see this concept paired with the concept of a wireless, internet, or cellphone alert to let you know if there's a problem, if it's done, to let you check up on your charge status remotely, etc.
For non-fast charges, I'd recommend a minimum standard be the typical 110V@15A outlet. A more thorough standard would also include the 110V@20A kitchen outlet, the 110/220V@30A washer/dryer outlet, the 110V/30A RV outlet, and the 110/220V@50A RV/range/welding outlet. In an ideal situation, each plug would have only one control: a slider or knob that lets you adjust the amperage from the default (in case you know the outlet's wiring to be deficient or whatnot). It would be nice if the vehicle's onboard charger would likewise alert the user to the charging status wirelessly, via the internet, via a cell phone, or whatnot.
Inside the car for in-vehicle electronics, I'd vote for a sort of advanced Green Plug idea (with the addition of AC support) as the standard power port(s).
** -- One exception is that there are a few companies that use adapter sales to turn a profit, like Apple. But for most companies, this is not the case.
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meme 3:46PM (6/16/2008)
"12. He's right about the battery packs, they should be broken up into separate 3-5lb cells that can be replaced individually so you can remove/recycle cells that fail prematurely."
It's not that simple. First off, dealing with individual, replaceable, computer-monitored cells is just not realistic when you're dealing with potentially *thousands* of cells. It'd be a reliability and maintenance nightmare. Secondly, they're not all the same. You have to have many cells linked in series, and then each of these series groups hooked in parallel. The obvious grouping is thus a group series-linked cells that provides the proper voltage, which are dealt with as a whole. And, in fact, this is what Tesla does; they're called "blades". You could potentially upgrade blades to ones with equivalent voltages but more amp hours, although you'd need to make sure that your charger and inverter know how to deal with the new cells' charge/discharge profiles.
"Once the size/connectors & voltage is standardized"
Will. Not. Happen. (at least not without another charger internal to the vehicle to convert that to what the vehicle needs, which defeats the whole "not having to carry it around" point). Different devices have different needs. Different cells have different charge/discharge properties. And technology is constantly advancing. You simply cannot mandate a particular voltage and charge/discharge profile and expect it to work industry-wide or in the long-term.
If you want to be realistic, any sort of universal charger *must* be adaptable. It must be able to handle different charge/discharge profiles and voltages. And, ideally, the vehicle will tell the charger what it needs.
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Chris M 4:05PM (6/16/2008)
Charging connections should be standardized, or at least easily connected with simple compact adapters. The standard 110 volt 15 amp and 220 volt 30/40/50/70 amp connections (yes, there are several different 220 volt plugs!) are good, but even better would be a connection that could communicate with the car, and select an appropriate voltage and amperage.
"Swappable batteries" will have to be standardized, but that will be done by the battery swapping company. Many plug-ins won't use swappable batteries, including PHEVs, NEVs, and EVs with high capacity batteries, they will use whatever battery type and chemistry they deem appropriate, and have on-board charge controllers that will produce the right voltage and amperage for the battery type and size used.
The "Reductive Charging" system developed by AC Propulsion can convert the input voltage as needed to match the battery charging requirements, and it uses the same motor controller electronic components used in driving, thus it doesn't add any extra weight! Tesla Motors has licensed this technology, and several other companies have shown interest.
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Peter 4:16PM (6/16/2008)
Way too early to think about standardizing batteries as we are still bleeding edge on the chemistry. If you replace a cell you need the exact same chemistry and cell size. You are n't going to mix A123 with altair nanosafe.
They could get together to work on a standard industrial grade smart charger, that would negotiate charge rates/voltages between car and station before charging begins as it is definitely no one size fits all, but you should be able to have the car and charger agree on the parameters before charging begins.
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Chris M 4:22PM (6/16/2008)
Another point: The charging stations should be fairly inexpensive, easy to use and durable. Lower cost means more can be installed in public parking areas, reducing the chance of a "park and charge" slot being unavailable. Ease of Use makes it more appealing to potential customers, and Durability makes it more reliable - also appealing to customers.
That low cost requirement precludes any complex charging controllers built into the stations, charge controlling should be built into the vehicles.
As for "Vehicle to Grid", it depends on whether those capabilities can add sufficient benefit to override the additional cost.
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meme 4:49PM (6/16/2008)
"That low cost requirement precludes any complex charging controllers built into the stations, charge controlling should be built into the vehicles."
For slow charging, that's quite reasonable. You really just need an outlet. For fast charging, it's not reasonable at all. First off, fast chargers are going to be expensive no matter what due to the batteries; the cost of charge-negotiating hardware will be dwarfed by battery costs. Secondly, the weight and bulk of an onboard fast charger would just be too great.
The economics of fast chargers is actually quite reasonable. A $125k fast charger that completely depreciates will return an 8% 20-year IRR if you take in about $30 a day profit. Interstates have tens or hundreds of thousands of cars drive down them every day, and the stretches with a smaller number of vehicles (the more desolate stretches) will have a higher percentage of them going long distances and thus needing to fast charge. One in several thousand vehicles being EVs would make fast chargers profitable across pretty much the entire US. And that's ignoring fringe benefits (customer loyalty, green cred, tax breaks, etc)
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Randy C. 5:38PM (6/16/2008)
Every part of an EV that interfaces to the outside world needs to be standardized. Can you imagine a charging station with 6 different kinds of plugs, it would be expensive too. It was bad enough when Toyota's RAV4-EV came out and had a different magna charger called the Small Paddle Interface (SPI). GM's EV1 used a Large Paddle Interface (LPI). Guess what the GM charger wont fit the Toyota car, so all of the installed magna chargers had to be swapped out at $2000-$3000 each. During this time public charging stations had to also provide a conductive charging plug for the Ford and Honda cars.
The SAE had developed a standard, J1772, for conductive charging. It specified the 3 charging levels and a common connector (Avcon). J1772 is currently under revision, what they're revising I don't know.
What I do know is a standard high power charging plug needs to be implemented NOW. Also a standard location like within the first 3 feet of the vehicle length so you don't have to provide a 25 foot cord. All before Chevrolet starts pumping out thousands of Volts. Tesla currently has its own proprietary plug that wont allow use of current public charging stations without hauling around an adapter unit that can be easily stolen.
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