Tonik and The Phoenix Works unveil EV charging service plan

CHAdeMO to allow charging at up to 400 kW

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Zapmap
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The CHAdeMO Association has released the latest version of its protocol – CHAdeMO 2.0 – which will allow electric vehicle charging at up to 400 kW.

The announcement means that ultra-rapid charging will be possible on the CHAdeMO standard – using the same connector shape as currently – with liquid-cooled cables due to allow charging at 1 kV.

Because the connector will remain the same, future CHAdeMO charge points will still be able to charge existing EVs, though at a lower speed. However, EVs still to come to market will be able to charge at a higher rate, bringing the standard back up to that of CCS.

The Combined Charging Standard (CCS) has previously announced that speeds of up to 350 kW are possible using its set-up, where as the previous CHAdeMO update (CHAdeMO 1.2) would previously have topped out at 200 kW.

There are currenly no EVs on the market that can charge at 400 kW – or even the 350 kW possible on CCS or the 200 kW previously possible on CHAdeMO. However, with larger battery packs and increased numbers of manufacturers coming to the market, there are already models available to buy that can charge at 100 kW or more.

Jaguar’s I-Pace, the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, and forthcoming Kona EV can all charge at 100 kW should the infrastructure allow, while Audi’s e-tron – due later this year – will be able to charge at 150 kW. All have or are due to have the CCS standard fitted. This ignores Tesla models that can charge at 120 kW on the company’s Supercharger network already.

A number of EV charge point manufacturers are already future-proofing rapid units by making them upgradable to 150 kW or more in the future. Current quotes of this future-proofing have been limited to 150 kW and/or 350 kW, though this is now set to change again with CHAdeMO’s announcement.

CHAdeMO has also confirmed that the new protocol will be compatible with CHAdeMO Plug-and-Charge (PnC), This will see users only need to plug the car in using the connector, and the EV and charge point will communicate to authenticate, confimr charge, and complete the billing process – similar to Tesla’s set-up.

Find CHAdeMO charge points on Zap-Map by using the connector filters on desktop and app