Nissan Quickcharger: Half The Size At Half The Price
If you want to charge your Nissan Leaf in 30 minutes, Nissan will (at least in Japan) sell you (reluctantly) a pricy quickcharger. It costs about half of what a U.S. Leaf costs – before incentives and rebates: The current quickcharger sets you back 1.47 million yen, in today’s dollars, that’s about $19,000. Soon, this will get considerably, well, more reasonable. Nissan today announced a quickcharger with the same performance, but at half the size and half the price of the old one.
According to an emailed statement by Nissan, “the newly-developed quick charging unit retains the high performance of the current quick charger manufactured by Nissan,” but will “take up less space and enable easier installation.” A final price is not set. However, Nissan says that the unit will “cost significantly less than one million yen,” and “the base specification unit will cost only below one half the price of the current unit.” That would be around $8.500 – in Japan, including tax.
The new unit complies with the CHAdeMO protocol and is rated at a hefty 49kW at “3- AC200V” (which I assume means 200V 3phase). It produces 500V DC at 125 Amps. Apart from the base unit, a (pricier) outdoor unit and one for cold climes are available. All share the same electrical specs.
Still, the quickcharger is not expected to be a fast moving item. Nissan aims to sell 5,000 of the new quick chargers by March 2016 (!!!). The target market is Nissan dealerships, local government facilities and “locations that draw large numbers of customers in regions throughout Japan.”
The U.S. and Europe will get the charger at some point. Given high enough quantities, the price can drop considerably . A DC welder with similar ratings can be had for less that $1,000.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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"A DC welder with similar ratings can be had for less that $1,000." That remark either shows your ignorance of how lithium battery chargers work, or is meant to be a shocking point of comparison. A 'smart' charger contains a lot more than a rectifying diode and some wiring, particularly at these power levels. You have to monitor numerous parameters to achieve a proper and safe charge, while providing feedback to the customer about state of charge, errors, and other desirables. As for quick-charging, that is an exceptionally bad practice for lithium batteries, and I'm surprised Nissan will stand by the warranty of a car subjected to it.
Sounds like a perfect item for outside of casual restaurants or Starbucks. Pull up, bide your time and change while you wait.