And Now, The Charger Wars

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Did you ever arrive in a foreign country, and the plug of your battery-depleted cell phone did not fit? Or worse, it did fit, and the charger went up in smoke? That’s nothing compared to the impending EV disaster. Buy an EV, and you will find yourself between the battle lines of plugs, voltages, and technologies. Imagine the horror: Guided by your GPS, you limp into a charging station on the last watts in your battery, and their round plug doesn’t fit your square socket.

The Japanese government has set a goal of 5,000 high-speed charging stations in place nationwide by 2020, writes The Nikkei [sub]. Some say that this is a mere shadow of the approximately 50,000 gas station in Japan that serve cars with a much bigger range. Other say that this is Japan’s move to establish a fait accompli in the worldwide race to establish a global standard for charging technology.

In Japan alone, all kinds of companies are entering the charging business. They range from established charger manufacturers such as Takaoka Electric and Hasetec to Nissan which wants to install proprietary charging equipment at 200 group dealerships (nice traffic generator…) Even trading houses like Marubeni want in on the game.

Toyota, Nissan, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and 155 other companies and associations formed a consortium in March to promote the Japanese standard, dubbed CHAdeMO. Earlier in the year, Japan has been making moves to set ECE standards for electric vehicles.

The U.S. and European countries have their own ideas and their own technologies. Setting the standard “would give their automakers an advantage in the market for electric vehicles,” says the Nikkei. Ain’t that the truth.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 26 comments
  • Nicholas Weaver Nicholas Weaver on May 04, 2010

    SAE J1772-2009 has been adopted by GM, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Tesla. This standard already supports 240V/70A charging. I suspect that CHAdeMO will integrate into SAE J1772, as the other proposal (IEC 62196-2-X) is a superset of SAE J1772.

  • Findude Findude on May 04, 2010

    The EV hobbyist community (check out evalbum.com) for the most part piggybacks on the existing infrastructure. In the USA this means the standard 110-120V 3-prong outlets you see in your homes and everywhere or the big 220V outlet like the one your dryer is plugged into. Seriously, use the existing infrastructure. We'll probably need something new for 440V charging outlets and maybe even higher. For most folks their EV will usually charge the same way their cell phone does, plugged into a wall outlet while you sleep. Yes, it will get more sophisticated over time, but let's just use what we already have while this is getting off the ground.

  • CRacK hEaD aLLeY CRacK hEaD aLLeY on May 04, 2010

    What's wrong with inductive charging?

  • Carlson Fan Carlson Fan on May 04, 2010

    "I don’t want a Hybrid…but I’d buy an EV to go with my normal gas car. It’s totally NOT there, though, as an only car….yet" Agreed! I need my Tahoe for it's people hauling/towing abilities but I don't need it to run to Target quick for diapers. That's why the Volt will make a perfect 2nd car for us. The recharging away from home is a non-issue with the range extender, although I'm betting I'll never need to fill the tank more than once every 6 months. Plus it's nothing to wire 220VAC into my garage which means I could fully recharge it in about 3 hours.

Next