Comments on: CHAdeMO General Assembly Contemplates SAE Plug Competition

By: Sandy

Sandy — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:26:14 +0000

Was is over in Europe? Really? I was just over in Norway and rented a Leaf. I drove 100′s of miles between Oslo and Lillehammer, etc. and there were CHAdeMO chargers all the way. Norway right now is providing HUGE tax and fee advantages to Leaf buyers, and they are selling well over there. No sales tax, no highway tax, free passage on ferries, tunnels and bridges, access to taxi and bus lanes, free parking downtown, free charging at 15 Amps 230 V. There will soon be enough Leaf owners in Norway that I see NO WAY that the Norwegian government will alllow CHAdeMO to be removed from the Statoil stations. Yes, they may eventually put other plugs on the fast chargers, but I see NO WAY the CHAdeMO will go away any time soon. It’s already too late to roll it back quickly.

By: kdawg

kdawg — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:09:27 +0000

It will all be moot when everything goes to wireless charging.

By: Collin Burnell

Collin Burnell — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:58:05 +0000

I think the question should be “How do we design a standard charging system that allows for a wide variety of plugs / voltages / etc. including some that have not been invented yet?” This is a new industry and new standards and new innovations are inevitable.

By: Modern Marvel Fan

Modern Marvel Fan — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:38:07 +0000

I don’t think the auto makers are the one that hold the cards… I think the maker of charging stations are the one that having the major saying. Those EVs have to find stations to charge….

By: Mariana 350Green

Mariana 350Green — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:09:07 +0000

350Green is NOT using NRG settlement to install charging stations throughout CA.

By: perfectapproach

perfectapproach — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:20:09 +0000

Hopefully, by 2020, we’ll have newer battery technology too.

By: Tony Williams

Tony Williams — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:33:01 +0000

Thanks for reporting this. I don't believe the costs to add an SAE nozzle will be quite as simple as throwing on an extra hose on the ChadeMo charger.

The timeline in something like this:

Summer to Fall 2012 - SAE votes to approve Combo "Frankenplug"

Fall to Winter 2012 - Some charger manufacturers begin implementation of Combo in existing ChadeMo or dedicated units.

Spring 2013 - Prototyping

Summer - Fall 2013 - Submissions to UL or other laboratories.

Summer 2014 - UL listing

Fall 2015 - first UL approved Combo chargers deployed

At the same time, there will be hundreds of ChadeMo chargers in the most prominent locations in the USA; western states of Washington and Oregon and California. That's where the bulk of electric vehicles are sold and will be sold.

Also, Nissan / Infiniti will have sold tens of thousands of ChadeMo cars in that area. GM will have sold token amounts of Sparks (just enough to be California CARB compliant) and not all will even have a Combo plug (every LEAF except about 10% of 2011 models have the ChadeMo plug).

BMW, of the 9 manufactures signing on with the Combo plug, will be the only other car that I would expect to even "make a go" against the ChadeMo cars. Because their cars are going to be more expensive than a LEAF or Mitsubishi iMiev, it's likely they won't come close to the sales volume. All the rest are merely token efforts so far (that market in the USA... Renault does not and neither does Peugeot, which is signed on with ChadeMo anyway).

Neither Ford nor Chrysler have announced any plans for any Combo car whatsoever. I doubt a Smart EV will have any fast charge capabilities. Other Daimler efforts (for Mercedes) are currently with Tesla technology. The other Tesla company collaboration is with Toyota, and it does not use any DC charging.

To me, the single biggest swing vote is Toyota. Should they decide to build more EVs than then 2600 required to meet the minimum requirement for the state of California, AND decide to use SAE over ChadeMo, I would say SAE *might* have a chance. Otherwise, it doesn't look good, if Nissan and other Japanese manufacturers hold the course.

By 2020, there will be a next generation standard superseding both anyway!!!

By: perfectapproach

perfectapproach — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:03:36 +0000

Betamax vs VHS, Blu-ray vs HD-DVD, etc, etc. I just hope it ends soon. A long, protracted battle is gonna be bad for the EV business.

On the flipside, there might be a market for Combo-to-Chademo converters... ?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:01:35 +0000

This is no war. It’s akin to Iraq invading Kuwait and then the US led collation forces pushing them out like brushing an ant off your arm.
Yes CHAdeMO is here first but once the SAE standard is formally adopted it’s the death kneel for CHAdeMO in the US and Europe.
Of course CHAdeMO will continue in Japan – after all it’s their standard, but Nissan an Mitsubishi WILL be shipping care to the US and Europe with the SAE combo plug by 2014/2015, regardless of how they dig their heels in the sand now. This war is over before it began.

By: Van

Van — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:09:19 +0000

It sounds like matching the power and voltage windows would facilitate a simple adapter. Hence the “war” seems to be more sound than fury, and much ado about nothing. Time will tell