A few days ago I posted a preliminary report saying that eVgo has bolted a Tesla-CHAdeMO adapter to the side of some fast charging stations, to better serve Tesla car owners. There is an advertisement running on Facebook that leads to a page on their website. That information makes it…
In the North America Tesla cars use a proprietary charging cord, therefore to fast charge a Tesla car in North America requires using the proprietary charging cord. This morning friends in a local Electric Auto Association chapter (GGEVA) noticed that an eVgo charging station in San Francisco had support for…
According to Tesla, the company mission is to hasten the adoption of electric vehicles, and in general the renewable energy ecosystem. Hence Tesla is developing what are regarded as extremely awesome cars that happen to be electric, have managed to build a manufacturing asset base allowing them to approach a…
If the standards-based charging networks, and the automakers other than Tesla Motors, are to have a chance, standards-based high-power charging stations like what ABB just unveiled must exist. The Tesla Supercharger network is ingenious only in the forethought exhibited by Tesla Motors to invest in a widespread high power DC…
Over the weekend, at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association fair in Custer Wisconsin, one JB Straubel, the CTO of Tesla Motors, gave a talk. According to a report by Electrek, Straubel said that Tesla Motors is “talking with” other automakers about the Supercharger network. Clearly the current situation with three…
While CHAdeMO had a head-start over all other DC Fast Charging systems for electric vehicles, it may be that it will lose out in the standards/market-share competition to retain relevancy. We are plagued with three (four counting the Chinese) competing DC fast charging systems, when we as electric vehicle consumers…
Over the next few years we’ll see more electric cars with 200+ miles electric driving range. In a 200 mile range EV, the 50 kiloWatt rate we now call “fast charging” will seem slow. The 200+ miles range will require 60 kiloWatt-hours of electricity storage, requiring a 1+ hour recharging…
The debate over electric car fast charging systems has been going on for years, and the only sign of a settlement is that some of the automakers are investing in dual-protocol fast charging infrastructure. While it’s a great interim solution, as a practical matter the existing dual-protocol DCFC stations can…
Some good news for CHAdeMO in Europe is that the European Union has adopted a draft proposal supporting the “Dual Standard Approach”. While the Directive requires that all DC Fast Charging infrastructure support the Combo Charging System, through the EN62196-2 plug, it allows such charging stations to also support CHAdeMO. …
It would be wonderful if there were one fast charging standard for electric cars. We’ve collectively gone through periods with dueling standards, and it was painful. But, the current environment has several fast charging standards (CHAdeMO, China, Combined Charging System, and Tesla) each of which are vying for dominance. Recently…
Today, Honda launched a new project – the Honda Smart Home – that’s a glimpse into the future of buildings and transportation. And, it’s a future that isn’t terribly far away because most of the project uses off-the-shelf equipment. The idea is to look beyond zero emission vehicles to a…
The nice thing about Standards Organizations is that there’s so many of them. If your standard gets rejected by one organization, such as the Society for Automotive Engineers, you can go to another standards committee, like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), to get ratification. That’s what has just happened in…
In California, eVgo is beginning to build their charging infrastructure (finally – aren’t they a little behind schedule?) and the good news for BMW i3 and Chevy Spark EV owners is the infrastructure being built supports both CHAdeMO and Combo Charging System fast charging. But the situation just picks at…
In late 2013, Nissan started funding CHAdeMO charger installation across the US as part of a larger plan to rapidly expand CHAdeMO infrastructure. Nissan, and the Japanese automakers, are continuing to press forward on CHAdeMO adoption despite the fact that the SAE and European automakers have chosen the SAE Combo…
It’s thought that DC Fast Chargers deployment is a crucial element to widespread electric car adoption. For example, the Japanese deployed a widespread CHAdeMO network in 2008 and immediately saw electric car utilization rates go up. My feeling is that fast charging is the way to implement the normal behavior…
