Automotive

Carmakers plan European EV fast-charging network

The 350-kW chargers will be able to charge compatible vehicles more quickly than the most powerful chargers currently in use
The 350-kW chargers will be able to charge compatible vehicles more quickly than the most powerful chargers currently in use

A consortium of major carmakers is planning a high-powered fast-charging network for electric vehicles in Europe. BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen Group, Audi and Porsche are targeting an initial 400 sites with chargers of up to 350 kW.

The ultimate aim of investing in the network is to encourage the mass-market uptake of EVs – a sign, the carmakers say, of their "belief in the future of electric mobility." By rolling out chargers along highways and major thoroughfares, the intention is to enable long range EV travel.

The 350-kW chargers rolled out will be based on the Combined Charging System quick charging standard that can be used by any car brand. The plan sees the further development of the existing technical standard, allowing compatible vehicles to be charged more quickly than with the most powerful chargers currently in use.

It is claimed the network will be the highest-powered in Europe. The use of 350-kW chargers to enable long-range EV use with a view to encouraging EV uptake mirrors the planned approach outlined by the US government.

The carmakers involved have signed a memorandum of understanding for the creation of the network and intend to start work next year. By 2020, it is hoped that thousands of the high-powered charging points will have been rolled out.

Sources: Ford, Daimler

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7 comments
Joe Blough
High charging current equals high battery heating equals the need for hugely enhanced battery cooling equals larger batteries with more weight. Nothing is free. It will be interesting to see how this works out in practice. Remember the dreamliner batteries, or how about Samsung? The dreamliner used brute force fireproof stainless steel battery containers. Samsungs tiny by comparison, cell phone batteries still were a danger to the users. The good news is thermal engineers are going to have a great future.
CarlUsick
I hope the picture on the article doesn't show what the charger will actually look like. A little industrial design might be in order, no?
swaan
@Joe High charging current (power) will be offset by much larger batteries and improved chemistries with lower resistances but even then serious EVs designed to be the only or primary cars in the family will have liquid cooled batteries for time being.
Username
Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, Trump has visions of coal powered cars.
Derek Howe
Hopefully the US also employs this, so it can quickly become the world wide standard. Nissan will have to dump their CHAdeMO charger...at least for US models...since it's the defacto standard in Japan. Tesla will have to change over to this...which I'm sure they would be willing to do, the only reason they had to go their own proprietary charger route is because of the Chicken & the egg problem...so they made the chicken & the egg.
physics314
At 350 kW charging, and say 35 kW discharging, that's a ratio of 10 driving to charging. Drive 4h, and you have to stop for 24 minutes. Fast?
Tom Lee Mullins
I hope something similar like this comes to the US.