Nissan and BMW plan to install 120+ CHAdeMO/CCS fast charging stations across the US

Nissan and BMW announced today a welcome deal to build dual-protocol fast charging at 120 locations across 19 states.   This is another sign of cooperation between two main factions of the competition to establish the dominant fast charging protocol.  For the last five years, a big question dogging the electric vehicle market is whose fast charging protocol, CHAdeMO, Combo Charging System, or Tesla Supercharger, will dominate.

Of the promised 120 fast charging stations, the press release claims 19 have already been built.  The stations will be connected to the Greenlots charging network, and they’ll support two fast charging protocols (CHAdeMO and CCS).   The named states for this fast charging project are California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

It appears the stations will be installed “in the community”, at workplaces, and at dealerships.

“Nissan takes a three-pronged approach to growing public EV charging options for LEAF drivers by installing quick chargers in the community, at corporate workplaces and at Nissan dealerships,” said Andrew Speaker, Nissan’s director of Electric Vehicle Sales and Marketing. “By working with BMW to increase the number of available public quick-chargers, we are able to further enhance range confidence among EV drivers across the country.”

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“BMW continues to pursue new ways to support the development of a robust public charging infrastructure that will benefit current and future BMW i3 owners across the country. This BMW-Nissan project builds on BMW’s ongoing commitment to participate in joint partnerships designed to expand DC Fast charging options nationwide for all EV drivers,” said Cliff Fietzek, Manager Connected eMobility, BMW of North America. “Together with Nissan, we are focused on facilitating longer distance travel so that even more drivers will choose to experience the convenience of e-mobility for themselves.”

About 11 months ago a similar deal was announced between VW, BMW and ChargePoint.  That network is starting to come to fruition, and those of us who closely watch for new fast charging stations have seen a few stations pop up.  That deal is planned to form an East Coast and West Coast fast charging corridor.

Both projects plan to deploy dual-protocol fast charging stations – CHAdeMO and CCS.  The automakers haven’t deigned to adopt common fast charging ports on their cars.  At least they’re agreeing to support charging stations supporting two of the three fast charging ports.

That these stations will support a 50 kiloWatt charging rate means two things:

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  1. BMW will not deploy their 25 kiloWatt CCS-only charging stations as part of this project.
  2. They’re not preparing for the near-term future of 200 mile range electric cars.

When 200+ mile range electric cars are more common, fast charging rates should be increased to over 100 kiloWatts.

About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

5 Comments

  1. Porsche has announced a new electric car due by 2019, 2020. They are going with 800+Volt battery packs, to keep the amp rate down, yet the charging speed the same. Same results, a 200 + mile range vehicle, that charges quickly, but at lower amps and higher voltage..

  2. how is the payment proceeded for using such chargers? Are the prices based on how many kWt you consume or is it some kind of monthly/yearly membership, which allows you to use them?

    • The chargers will be controlled by Greenlots. Greenlots charges by the kWh.

    • Come to think of it, my earlier reply may have been too simplistic.

      I haven’t queried Greenlots on this, but it may be that Greenlots conducts business similarly to ChargePoint. CP doesn’t own their charging stations, instead they’re owned by host sites, and the host sites set up policy as they wish for their charging stations.

      The Greenlots charging stations I know of have differing policies. At the Kia dealerships the charge is $15/hour prorated to the minute, at another it is $0.20 per kWh (for a fast charge), and at another it is totally free — zero cost fast charging, what a concept.

      Therefore we can’t predict the policies for the stations deployed under this plan. It may even be that Nissan/BMW won’t end up owning the station, but instead will be offering deals to host sites to subsidize their charging station ownership. Back in 2013, Nissan was offering subsidies to host sites that essentially gave them a free charging station.

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