New Charge Connector Standard?

[palmer_md]

I've known for some time about the upcoming standard that they are trying to adopt (the yazaki plug) SAE J1772. I came across this page where a guy from the UK is suggesting another plug developed by Mennekes with Daimler. This plug has a slightly lower rating for the US (63 amp instead of 70 amp) but has an equal rating for the EU where 3 phase power is more common.

This brings up the question of the standard. The standard should be global not just US based. Are we going to end up with two standards?

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IEC 62196

Therefore, Europe has recently come up with an alternative. Why not just use the existing IEC 60309? Well, there are a few drawbacks - the higher current versions are rather bulky and there's no provision for a pilot or data pin (to allow the cable to be de-energised when not plugged into a vehicle). As well, it would be an advantage to offer various different supplies such as 1 or 3 phase, and different current levels all through the same connector. This wouldn't be legal with the IEC60309 standard, and there are many existing devices using those connectors which expect the correct supply to be present at every socket.

The new connector is made by Mennekes. This was developed with requirements from RWE and Daimler, and was revealed only recently (a press release is on the RWE Mobility website). The connectors will be referenced under the IEC 62196 electric vehicle charging standard.
It looks pretty similar to the SAE connector - but it has 7 contacts in total, 3 AC phases and Neutral, with a 63A rating - giving an amazing 43kW maximum charge rate. If the car had a charger capable of using the full current (perhaps using the AC motor controller "in reverse"), this could be worth up to 200 miles of charge per hour!
It appears very compact for the power, compared to the IEC60309 type, and is not overcomplicated. The developers explain that the same connector could be used on both ends of the charging cable, and there is a locking mechanism to make charging secure.

But these connectors clearly overlap in purpose, so why not settle on just one? The European developers apparently have this in mind, since it's also possible to use the pins of the IEC connector for the USA single-phase application, but not the other way around..

Will the USA adopt it, or will "not invented here" syndrome be the deciding factor? We will find out soon!

http://www.tuer.co.uk/charge-connectors.htm

[chijayhawker]

Is the era of American arrogance about how we only know how to build things right gone? I doubt it. I had hopes that we would start playing better on those things that are global in nature, especially about Nature, but I've already heard how some of our American senators (read this a Republican for those who care about party politics) are going to Copenhagen this week to undermine and efforts that Obama offers to help cooperate on the issue of Global Climate Change. So I don't hold high hopes that Americans attitude on this plug issue would be any better. I understand the benefits of Nationalism, but sometimes it just goes a bit too far.

[KarenRei]

We'll be lucky if we only end up with two standards -- I.e., if, say, Japan or China don't go off on their own thing.

Mennekes is an interesting standard. On three phase, it's borderline rapid charging at over 40kW, and would take one heck of an inverter to fully utilize.

Personally, I want to see rapid charging DC standardized sooner rather than later. I hate seeing all of these proprietary custom DC rapid charge connectors.

[Matthijs]

There are some threads on the subject in the forum:

http://apteraforum.com/showthread.php?t=2997
http://apteraforum.com/showthread.php?t=1310

[palmer_md]

There are some threads on the subject in the forum:

http://apteraforum.com/showthread.php?t=2997
http://apteraforum.com/showthread.php?t=1310

Thanks Matthijs,

I guess I never caught your posts about the other standard when we were discussing that second thread. I only remembered the SAE J1772 stuff. It was nice to review that again, thanks for the link. It was good to go through those posts again.

I like the interlocking and communications in the SAE standard, but I would like to have the plug include 3 phase capability since I think that will be required in the future, even in the US. Now it seems like none of the proposed standards are really fully comprehensive.

[speculawyer]

We'll be lucky if we only end up with two standards.
That's the nice thing about standards . . . there are so many to choose from. :tongue0015:

[scottsim]

I am adding another 3KW of solar panels to my house, and with it I am having the electrician add a sub-panel in the garage with extra room for 240 future EV charging and perhaps a plug...

So, any direction yet to a plug that will be standard for EV charging?

[randyd]

Just have the panel installed but wait to get a plug.

Being so far ahead of the curve has it's risks, ya'know?