CHAdeMO Association has announced a new charging protocol, with which the charging of electric cars will not only be significantly faster but also significantly more convenient thanks to the reduction of the pistol and the thinning of the cable.
Created jointly with China Electricity Council (CEC), the CHAdeMO 3.0 – with the working name “ChaoJi” – is the first publication of the next-generation ultra-high-power charging standard. Last year, the CEC and CHAdeMO Association had already shown its upcoming fast charging connector and said that the new charging standard should handle up to 900 kW.
In the current release, the developers are a little more moderate; the connector supports the maximum charging capacities of over 500 kW, with a maximum current intensity of 600 A. Of course, electric cars connected to such a charging station will need to do the same.
As far as the connector is concerned, the CHAdeMO Association specifies that it is lighter and more compact and can get by with a thinner cable. This is guaranteed by new liquid cooling and the elimination of the locking mechanism. Also, CHAdeMO 3.0-compliant vehicles will be backward compatible, meaning that they can continue to be charged with the existing DC fast charging standards (CHAdeMO, GB/T, and possibly CCS), underlines the organization. In other words, today’s CHAdeMO chargers can feed power to both the current EVs as well as the future EVs via an adapter or with a multi-standard charger.
The Chinese version of the new charging standard, which will work under the GB/T communication protocol, is expected to be released next year. Also, in 2021, the first vehicles that are compatible with the new standard should come onto the market – first commercial vehicles, then all other vehicle types.
During its presentation, the CHAdeMO Association announced that Japan and China have agreed to continue working on the technological development of this protocol. The Japanese fast charge standards, CHAdeMO and Chinese, GB/T, account for more than 90% of the global fast charge infrastructure, especially thanks to the large volume and dimensions of the Chinese market. India is expected to join the team sometime soon, and governments and companies from South Korea and South-eastern Asian countries have also expressed their strong interests.
