Standard For Electric Car Charging Announced

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Standard For Electric Car Charging Announced

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 19, 2012 @03:30AM from the which-automakers-will-promptly-ignore dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), an international syndicate, has unveiled what is to become the standard for electric car charging. In today's market there are hundreds of different methods and plugs to charge a variety of different cars, now a single multi use plug is announced as the world standard. Called the J1772 , it 'has two charging plugs incorporated into a single design and is said to reduce charging times from as long as eight hours to as little as 20 minutes.' The cumulative work of over 190 'global experts,' the plug can cater to both AC and DC currents for charging. The plug also sets a new standard on safety regulations, including 'its ability to be safely used in all weather conditions, and the fact that its connections are never live unless commanded by the car during charging.' The J1772 beat out its Japanese competitor the CHAdeMO, used as an option on the Nissan Leaf."

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Another one? by Kenja · 2012-10-19 03:33 · Score: 4, Informative

We went through all this in the 90's. Even had "standard" charges at the public transit stations. Ah well, perhaps it'll stick this time.

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1. Re:Another one? by Art+Challenor · 2012-10-19 04:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The summary (as usual) is a little misleading. The J1772 standard has been around for a while and is widely adopted. As I understand it, the "new" part to this is the addition of an optional, additional, connector that allows DC charging.
  
  High power AC/DC converters are expensive and generate heat, so require costly in-vehicle infrastructure. If the conversion is moved the charging station the on-board electronics are simplified.
  
  So you can have a relatively low-cost, slow charger at home. Charging stations can provide a fast DC charge. The initial cost of the charging station would increase, but the cost per vehicle would be much lower. So if 10 people per day spend 30 minutes charging you can amortize the higher cost of 10 vehicles.
2. Re:Another one? by tlhIngan · 2012-10-19 04:12 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yeah, I'm wondering that too. As of a few months ago my city put up electric charging stations all around the downtown area. If there wasn't a standard, then why did the stations lack any model information.
  Technically, the standard for those charging stations would be the traditional 3 pin 15 amp socket that you plug anything into. Because every electric car can plug into a atandard 110V 15A socket (at least in North America).
  Problem is, the end that goes into the car isn't standard, so those charging stations rely on the user to haul around the charging cable wherever they went. And the car end is important because it has to handle charging from a 110V15A socket, but the user at home may have bought a fast charger using 220V15A or higher. And perhaps you want DC if you're wanting alternative energy so instead of wasting energy inverting and then rectifying power, you can plug straight into your battery bank.
  So this stadnard means charging stations can continue to offer standard 110V sockets (with owner-provided power cord) and provide the connector at the end of a cord (like gas station nozzles) so the owner doesn't need their car cable and the car can charge faster if it needs to.
3. Re:Another one? by udachny · 2012-10-19 04:12 · Score: 2
  
  Just today I went to the business event held in Baden Baden, dedicated to investing in various alternative energy solutions, including the new electrical concept cars presented by BMW mostly (taking off to the related Gala event in a few minutes). It looks like they are aiming at the Asian market with the new electric concepts, they know they have to overcome Toyota Prius and other similar cars, they are hoping for Chinese investment to do this (funny enough, the Chinese investor guy didn't show up for the 500 people event that was basically staged for him). I think you are right, whatever this story calls a 'standard' is irrelevant, there is not even an agreement on what the tech will be. Will it be a hybrid, hydrogen or electrical or something else. They presented all of these possibilities, probably mostly aiming at hybrids, not pure electrical models.
  
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4. Re:Another one? by Medievalist · 2012-10-19 08:10 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  What all is required to convert ac to dc? I thought all you needed was 4 resistors in the right arrangement.
  4 diode's, and its pretty ineffecient/dirty way of doing it.
  it isn't inefficient and it isn't dirty either. the only problem is one needs a huge cap.
  Without that huge capacitor, it's as dirty as it gets. And isn't the efficiency determined by the diode voltage drop?
  Hey, look, I built a pedant cascade!
J1772 by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-19 03:34 · Score: 5, Funny

Seriously... they called it the "JIZZZ"?
Hundreds? by marcroelofs · 2012-10-19 03:38 · Score: 5, Insightful

How can there be 100's of different plug varieties when there areonly 10's of different elctric cars yet. Also, how can plug-design speed up charge time 24 times?
1. Re:Hundreds? by gfilion · 2012-10-19 03:41 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Also, how can plug-design speed up charge time 24 times?
  More voltage, more amps?
2. Re:Hundreds? by MightyYar · 2012-10-19 03:41 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Also, how can plug-design speed up charge time 24 times?
  The standard redefines time to be 24x of SI time.
  
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3. Re:Hundreds? by MeepMeep · 2012-10-19 03:52 · Score: 2
  
  How can there be 100's of different plug varieties when there areonly 10's of different elctric cars yet.
  I think the 'hundreds of plug varieties' comment is hyperbole
  
  Also, how can plug-design speed up charge time 24 times?
  The plug design change added more pins (the DC ones) and those can be used to deliver more amps quickly
4. Re:Hundreds? by necro81 · 2012-10-19 03:52 · Score: 2
  
  There aren't hundreds of different plug varieties. Have a closer look at the summary:
  
  there are hundreds of different methods and plugs to charge a variety of different cars
  You can get to hundreds if you multiply out the various permutations of physical connector, charge input voltage, charge input phases, charge output voltage, charge output AC or DC, charge rate, charger-car communications, and who controls the charging behavior. As you point out: because there are only tens of different electric car models out there, the number of actual charging system embodiments out of the total potential space is probably a much smaller number.
5. Re:Hundreds? by necro81 · 2012-10-19 04:01 · Score: 2
  
  how can plug-design speed up charge time 24 times
  Changing the plug design permits more amps at higher voltage. Their point of comparison is charging a vehicle overnight through a typical North American residential electrical circuit (120 Vac, single phase, 20 A per circuit). If one were to try pumping 100 amps at 500 Vdc through such a 3-prong 120-V plug or cable, it would simply melt.
  
  Of course, the charger being able to supply such high power to a car is predicated on the charger having that kind of power available to it. You won't get charge times on the order of one hour from a typical residential installation - not unless you have your own substation.
6. Re:Hundreds? by gr8_phk · 2012-10-19 04:14 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Of course, the charger being able to supply such high power to a car is predicated on the charger having that kind of power available to it. You won't get charge times on the order of one hour from a typical residential installation - not unless you have your own substation.
  One could have a battery powered charger. It could charge at 6kW for much of the day and then dump that at a much higher rate into the car battery. It's not optimal, but it could provide fast charging of the car without increasing the peak power usage of the home.
7. Re:Hundreds? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · 2012-10-19 04:16 · Score: 2
  
  How sad is it, that I know exactly which comic that is without having to goto* the link.
  *Of course, I would never goto the link, as gotos are considered harmful.
  
  --
  Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
8. Re:Hundreds? by Lumpy · 2012-10-19 04:19 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I have 300 amp service at home. Figure a typical commercial car charging circuit is 200Amps at 240 volts that is 200AH or 48,000Watts charging per hour. the nissan Leaf is a 24Kwh battery pack. BUT you never discharge past 50% so it's in reality a 12KWh battery pack.
  So their proposed 200Amp charging station will charge a Nissan Leaf in 15 minutes. the more typical 100Amp charger will charge it in 30 minutes.
  no private substation needed. And its currently available.
  Although most home installs are the smaller 40 Amp charging station which charge the car from empty in 1 hour 30 minutes. Very few people go for the 100 amp charging station as it requires being raped by a commercial electrician pretty hard. While the 40 amp unit can be installed by a residential electrician for less than $5500.00
  
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9. Re:Hundreds? by Gordonjcp · 2012-10-19 05:16 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  You'd need a *lot* more volts and amps. I have a van, which has an 80 litre tank that takes roughly two minutes to fill. On that 80 litres I get around 950km range, or to translate into American units around 30mpg. Now, I'm hauling around roughly 800kWh of energy in that tank. Let's assume that the vehicle actually turns only 30% of that into motion - that gives us 320kWh worth of actual movement.
  So if we assume that an electric car is 100% efficient, it would need 320kWh of batteries to travel 950km - and these would take a correspondingly large amount of power to charge. If you charge for ten hours, you'd need to be feeding in 32kW continuously. If you wanted to recharge as quickly as filling the diesel tank, you'd need 576kW available.
  I for one do not welcome our .5MW charging connector overlords.
10. Re:Hundreds? by Lumpy · 2012-10-19 06:36 · Score: 2
  
  You forget to add the $35,000 for the electric car as well.
  A Nissan Leaf real cost is about $40,000.00
  Or if you buy a Nissan Versa, the exact same car but with a gas engine... for $15,000.00 you have to drive it for 145,000 miles at $6.00 a gallon gas and assuming 35mpg.
  Basically the leaf will actually be worth owning after you have owned it for 13 years and have had ZERO maintenance costs.
  
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The great thing about standards by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-19 03:39 · Score: 5, Funny

The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.
1. Re:The great thing about standards by Twinbee · 2012-10-19 05:18 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Exactly, I've been campaigning for cars to be charged via USB so I can charge my car from my laptop. They're so ubiquitous now that it's a waste to have yet another standard. BUT NO, now we get J1772 on top of USB, firewire, HDMI, and the thousand of other standards out there.
  
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Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-19 03:41 · Score: 5, Funny

In Europe we want micro-usb.
1. Re:Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-19 04:23 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Please wait 6-10 weeks for charging.
Can the car control the cable if the battery dies? by chitselb · 2012-10-19 03:47 · Score: 2

'its ability to be safely used in all weather conditions, and the fact that its connections are never live unless commanded by the car during charging.'

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Re:Can the car control the cable if the battery di by Smidge204 · 2012-10-19 03:54 · Score: 4, Interesting

Electric cars have at least two batteries: One main battery for motion (the traction battery) which is the one everyone focuses on, and a traditional 12-volt lead-acid car battery that operates all the normal 12-volt lights and accessories that modern cars are fitted with. If the main traction battery is completely dead - which would be an extreme failure case but let's say it did - the charger controls are all fed from the 12V system so at worst you'd need a quick zap from a set of jumper cables to get things going.
=Smidge=
And on the same day... by wonkey_monkey · 2012-10-19 04:00 · Score: 3, Informative

...the guy who designed the battery now used in hybrid cars has died. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20004190

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GM had a better design by Lumpy · 2012-10-19 04:04 · Score: 3, Informative

the EV1 had a charging paddle that was an inductive connection. safe to use under water.
Instead we get a version that means a 100% dead car = a trip tot he mechanic as it cant "command" the connection to start charging.

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1. Re:GM had a better design by tgd · 2012-10-19 04:24 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  the EV1 had a charging paddle that was an inductive connection. safe to use under water.
  Instead we get a version that means a 100% dead car = a trip tot he mechanic as it cant "command" the connection to start charging.
  I don't think any of the EVs currently shipping will let their charge get that low, but even if that happened you just have to jump the 12v system -- like any other car with a dead battery. (Even modern standards, generally, can't be push-started anymore because the alternator can't generate enough power to get the ECU booted)
  GM's volt, for example, won't let the vehicle discharge the 12v system enough to keep the charger from working.
2. Re:GM had a better design by Lumpy · 2012-10-19 04:28 · Score: 2
  
  Incorrect. I recently push started a 2013 Honda Civic Si. battery was not dead, it was missing. GM cars will not because the Delco alternator is designed to not work without a battery. it requires a battery voltage to excite the coils to create electricity. But many japanese alternators dont have that flaw.
  
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Incorporates previous designs by dlenmn · 2012-10-19 04:09 · Score: 5, Informative

From TFA:

[The New standard is] based on the 2009 J1772, which had only an AC charging plug. The current version includes a DC plug underneath the AC plug, which means that not only are both options available, but cars with the older J1772 couplings, such as the 2012 Nissan Leaf and 2013 Chevrolet Volt, can still use the new plug.
1. Re:Incorporates previous designs by TheGratefulNet · 2012-10-19 04:28 · Score: 2
  
  ah, so its a usb3 plug in disguise, then?
  (notfullyserious.jpg)
  
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  "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
2. Re:Incorporates previous designs by nschubach · 2012-10-19 06:22 · Score: 2
  
  ... does this device utilize a computer?
  
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  Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
3. Re:Incorporates previous designs by DickBreath · 2012-10-19 06:25 · Score: 2
  
  It may be just an extension cord, but if you suffix it with ". . . on a car", then it becomes a new invention.
  
  Hey it worked for Apple to patent things already patented by adding " . . . on an iPhone".
  
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Re:Can the car control the cable if the battery di by Vicarius · 2012-10-19 04:11 · Score: 4, Insightful

For some cars, like Tesla, if your main battery dies (i.e. drains itself), you will have to buy a new $40,000 battery that is not covered by warranty.
warning by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-19 04:23 · Score: 2, Funny

Do not use your mouth when siphoning fuel from an electric car. The back-wash is much, much nastier than gasoline.