Hands on: Japan to get standard charging stations
One of the things that can prevent widespread adoption of electric cars is not having a standard charging system. Just ask Betamax or HD DVD how the lack of a standard can hurt.
European EV fans can breathe easy because the authorities have reached an agreement on a model created by a company named Mennekes, which includes communication interfaces to regulate the charge. In the U.S., the J1772 connector will be the new standard for plug-in vehicles. Stlll, despite the large amount of EV projects being undertaken by Japanese companies, it has taken until now for utility Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to actually begin developing a standard with those manufacturers. Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and Tepco have announced a commission to create standard charging station for the new array of EVs that will run on Japanese roads in the coming years.
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Gallery: Mitsubishi iMiEV production model
[Source: Le Blog Auto]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alan 4:22PM (8/14/2009)
Actually looking at those pictures does make me want to just forget the Leaf(with the Nanny State electronics) and the Volt(with the extra complexity and probably cost). I like the iMiEV KISS approach, just give us a fair priced EV with middling range and decent battery life and you have a great two car family second car replacement. Mountains are being somewhat made out of mole hills with EV, but I'm sure we'll get there in the end.
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Stew 4:25PM (8/14/2009)
"One of the things that can prevent widespread adoption of electric cars is not having a standard charging system"
True, but what prevents it EVEN MORE is that the only real EV for sale is a $100k+ sports car and the rest are NEV's.
Sorry for the negativity, but all the forward looking statements and concept cars are getting old, I wish they would start SELLing them already.
Stew
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john 4:47PM (8/14/2009)
I see no reason why they can't use the same plug standard as us.
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john 4:49PM (8/14/2009)
I see no reason why Japan couldn't use the same plug standard as us.
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Chris M 9:35PM (8/14/2009)
I suspect that the standards committee will be looking at both the European and US standards in their selection process. I'd suspect they'd be more likely to go with the US J1772, as their existing electrical system is already similar to the US design, and J1772 was developed by a Japanese company!
Alan 4:55PM (8/14/2009)
There should be a global standard, but no, that is also FAR too difficult to acheive. You'd think with the mistakes made with domestic plugs and sockets a lesson would be learned in this interconnected globalised world... sadly not.
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the4thheat 3:05PM (8/15/2009)
How true...maybe we should all bug our respective governments. Since the charging stations are all presumably 220/440V there's no reason why everyone can't agree on one standard.
Nick P. 5:41PM (8/14/2009)
I wonder how much of this deadlock is caused by Toyota and Honda (#1 & #2) trying to keep Nissan (#3) and Mitsubishi (#5?) from achieving mass-adoption of EVs.
Toyota and Honda keep saying that the infrastructure is not there for EVs. What a better way to make this true than stalling the adoption of a standard plug.
Just wonderin'...
OK, removing the tin foil hat now...
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Alan 5:45PM (8/14/2009)
Well maybe that's part of it. Luckily electricity has some fairly standard voltages the world over so at worse we may be ripped-off on the cables, as always seems to be the way.
Ray 8:03PM (8/14/2009)
Japan has a new infrastructure going in for hydrogen stations maybe the oil and auto companies that are developing that can wire up the charging systems at those locations? Nah to complicated, they better just stick to the simple things like producing, transporting, compressing, pumping hydrogen and installing hydrogen stations, better let the power company figure out the difficult plug and charging system standards.
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Rif 12:54PM (8/15/2009)
Good to see that the best tech standard is selected.
The Mennekes vehicle coupler can charge using either 1 or 3 phases, the SAE J1772 has only single phase charging. So the Mennekes can charge much faster whenever 3 phase available, yet it will be able to be used where just single phase 230-240V is available, i.e. it can also be used in US.
Albeit the J1772 is an all new standard for EV charging, the Misubishi IMev and the Nissan Leaf models that has been presented have not just J1772 but also an additional plug type for faster charging, highlighting that the specifications of the J1772 is not adequate for fast charging. Lets hope that Tepco decision for Japan will bring a stop to this multi plug nonsense before any real mass market production gets started.
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why not the LS2LS7? 1:56PM (8/15/2009)
In the US, in houses, 230-240V is 2 phase (split phase).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power
So no, the J1772 isn't only 1 phase, or it wouldn't support 230-240V charging in the US. And if the Mennekes coupler only supports 1 and 3 phase (as you say) and not split phase, then it's useless for the US market.
I believe your comment that the J1772 is not suitable for fast charging is nonsense.
Rif 7:08PM (8/15/2009)
@LS2LS7
"In the US, in houses, 230-240V is 2 phase (split phase)."
The 240V in US is made as 2 phases 120V with 180 degree phase difference, together acting as 240V. See the first line of the Wikipedia article where it is called: "3-wire single-phase distribution".
For US houses the 240V is used in high load appliances such as air conditioning or heaters. It could also be used to supply the power of 1 phase of the Mennekes vehicle coupler.
"So no, the J1772 isn't only 1 phase, or it wouldn't support 230-240V charging in the US. And if the Mennekes coupler only supports 1 and 3 phase (as you say) and not split phase, then it's useless for the US market."
You better tell that to Tepco, because Japan was earlier going to use the J1772, but Tepco has now decided to use Mennekes.
For an example of how to connect a US style split phase 220V input to device that expect a single phase 220V input:
www.50hz.com/manuals/10KSS60400v1.pdf
"I believe your comment that the J1772 is not suitable for fast charging is nonsense."
As already explained IMiev and Leaf found the J1772 too little for fast charge.
J1772: up to 70A at 240V = 16.8KW
Mennekes: up to 63A, 3 phases, 230V = 43.5KW
The charge through J1772 will for most part be fast enough for plug-in hybrids, e.g. the GM Volt with 16KWh battery of which even less will available to use. However for large battery EVs, e.g. the Tesla with 53KWh the J1772 would be a bottleneck.
In 5-10 years time when battery prices have fallen and battery energy density (KWh/kg) has gone up, there will come luxury cars and lorries that will want to put in 100+ KWh of batteries. How long will it then take to charge that with J1772?
Perhaps there are some companies behind SAE that do not want it to be too easy to charge batteries, so more people will rely more on liquid fuel to make their hybrid cars running and the general uptake of EV cars will be slower.
Ray 11:35PM (8/15/2009)
Rif and Why not the.... Good comments! Thanks. I will bring this up to some smart people in our electric vehicle association.
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vfx 1:00PM (8/16/2009)
Martin Eberhard mentioned that the J1772 was in the works for many years when in 2006 Tesla looked into what standard they would use for the Roadster. At the time it was a very low amperage connector and they insisted it go to where it is now.
I imagine they pushed it as far as they could though I bet when Tesla talks about quick charging the Model S they wish the coming Euro standard was in the US as well.
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Eletruk 2:27PM (8/17/2009)
"Just ask Betamax or HD DVD how the lack of a standard can hurt."
Betamax and HD-DVD were standards, they just lost out to better sales on competing products. In fact a derivative of betamax is still widely used in the professional video industry.
J1772 has been in the works since the late 90's, previous versions had defined the Avcon connector, the current defines the Yazaki connector. The current revision eliminates the high current DC capability, but increases the wattage of the AC level 2 charging from 6Kw (30A) to 15Kw (70A).
What's cool about J1772 is the plug tells the vehicle how much it can pull. So if you only have a 200A service and ran a 30A 240V circuit, you don't have to worry about the vehicle trying to suck 70A through the connector and blowing the breaker.
What I haven't heard of is any of the EV charger builders (like Manzanita Micro, or Zivan, or others) saying word 1 about adding J1772 to their chargers. Time to get on board guys!
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