Or so we thought. Although our charger fit onto the Mistubishi, it wouldn?t charge the car. Similarly, when we tried to charge the i on a public charger in Michigan, no juice flowed forth.
Such is the state of EV charging. While the charger you buy through the dealer at the time of purchase will definitely work, there?s no guarantee that you?ll get a true connection just because a cord plugs into the car?even though there?s supposed to be. "There are a fair number of problems out there," says Richard Lowenthal, chief technical officer and founder of Coulomb Technologies, which operates the ChargePoint public charging network.
The problem, according to Lowenthal, is that carmakers focused on ensuring that their cars would work with their chargers, without a lot of consideration of public charging stations. "Automakers didn?t go through that realization until recently," he says. To aid in the compatibility process, Coulomb offers carmakers testing of their cars for compatibility. "Usually we find a problem," Lowenthal says.
EVs come with a 120-volt Level 1 charger that you can plug into pretty much any outlet. But this works in slow motion. To own an electric car, you need to set up a 240-volt Level 2 charger that gets the job done in decent time. This is the kind that you?d find in a public charging station. But it?s what gave us the trouble.
Joe Delello, Mitsubishi Motors North America?s director of franchise development, said that this problem should not have occurred, because the company that manufactured our Nissan charger, AeroVironment, is one of Mitsubishi?s approved companies. The i is also tested to work with Eaton chargers sold at Best Buy, he says. "We?re taking very expensive measures to ensure [charging failure] doesn?t happen."
Another reason it shouldn?t happen: Things are supposed to be standardized. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)?the same SAE whose specification you see on a quart of oil?set a standard called J1772 to specify both the physical dimensions of the plug and the electrical characteristics of the current passing through it. In the interest of charger compatibility, all the new EVs sold in the U.S. comply with the J1772 standard.
But, it turns out, some engineers have interpreted the guidelines differently than others. Britta Gross, General Motors? director of global energy systems and infrastructure commercialization, says that this is an unavoidable issue in a nascent industry. "There is no replacement for experience," she says. "There is always an evolutionary aspect to standards, to tighten it up so the problems go away."
Manoj Karwa, director of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) programs for electrical-component manufacturer Leviton, says the situation will get better, and probably because of consolidation. Currently there are 35 EVSE vendors. "Each one has interpreted the recommended package differently," he said. "We have found some significant differences [among J1772-compliant chargers]." Karwa predicts that a handful of big companies will emerge in the future, easing these problems.
For the moment, though, EV drivers might run into multiple setbacks while trying to recharge their cars. Most commonly, Lownthal says, the charger mistakenly identifies a ground fault in the vehicle and, assumes there is a short, and refuses to charge the car. Or the pilot signal (which is the EV equivalent of old dial-up modems squawking at one another until they negotiated a communication speed) fails in its job of letting the charger and the car decide how quickly to charge the battery.
Despite these difficulties, Karwa says that in 95 percent of cases where the driver has a problem with the charger, it will charge the car eventually. For instance, ChargePoint?s public chargers have a toll-free phone number printed on them; call it and the operator can manually override the charger and command it to charge your car. In most cases of incompatibility, Lowenthal says, you lose some of the intended functions of the charger, such as remote control or delayed charging, but it will still do its main job and charge the car.
If you?re thinking about buying an EV, Karwa has two recommendations. First, always use a charger that is endorsed by the car?s manufacturer. Second, look for approval by Underwriters Laboratories, a global safety firm that checks the quality of such things.
Just don?t expect the industry to reach consensus overnight?in part because the players haven?t completely sorted out what EV chargers can do. "Where could this go?" Gross says. "Are we ready for the smart grid? What information could be communicated?" In the future, quick chargers could let connected cars? batteries discharge into the power grid to power residential air conditioning during peak afternoon hours. Or, consumers waiting for their cars to charge could also enjoy video streamed through an Internet connection in the charger. For now, automakers and EV servicing companies are building flexibility into plug standards to allow for that evolution over time, Gross says. In the short term, however, it just means confusion will reign.
Another example: The next thing that could help EVs become more practical is DC fast charging, the next step up from Level 2 chargers. But there are three competing standards for fast charging. One system is Tesla?s proprietary design, which probably won?t become widespread. The others are a Japanese design already used by Nissan and Mitsubishi, and an extension to the SAE J1772 standard that won?t hit the market for a couple of years at the earliest. "I don?t know if you can call it a standard if there are three of them," Lowethal says.
The result? We?ll have dueling VHS versus Beta quick-charging standards that will require having duplicate, incompatible public charging stations. "It will be a lot like gasoline and diesel pumps," Lowenthal says.
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