We need more public fast charging stations, so I’m going to find a way to get more out there.

 

New Zealand seems to be in a funny position regarding EV infrastructure.

Most every electric car sold (or made) here so far supports J1772 single phase 230V AC charging, while the Japanese Leaf and i Miev support CHAdeMO DC fast charging too… but as far as I know there’s only one DC charger installed in the whole country. So the defacto standard here is up to 32A J1772 single phase 230V AC charging, for around 7kW charging.

Except that there’s a new AS/NZ standard which apparently says we support both J1772 and IEC 62196.2, and DC Mode 4, which I guess means the CCS combo plug – but which one – J1772 or Mennekes? And if these are the standards, will anyone care given that folks are bringing in used Leafs for $25k that have J1772 and CHAdeMO ports? Even the new BMW i3 seems to have a J1772 charging port when sold here. I didn’t expect that.

Now it would be easy to standardise on J1772, but the problem is charge time and cost/benefit for people wanting to install chargers:

AS/NZ 3112 @ 10A = 2.3 kW = $0 (home socket)

J1772 @ 32A = 7kW = $1500*

IEC 62196 @ 32A = 22kW = $3500*

DC = 50kW = $35000*

*purchase price, not including connection, installation, etc

So… IEC 62196 can give 3 x the charge as standard J1772 for 2 x the cost.

But… DC gives 2 x the charge as IEC 62196 BUT at 10 x the cost.

Ultimately it’ll be up to the market to decide, and perhaps the utilities companies. I’d love to see lots of 22kW charging stations installed into businesses around the country, particularly in smaller towns to help passing travellers… but my gut tells me we’ll take the cheapest option. I suspect we’ll mostly stick with J1772 for “consumer” charging, and only the big boys will be able to install the 50+ kW DC chargers then charge rates comparable to diesel prices per km of charge. “Electricity? 12c kW/h. Oh, sorry, you want to use that electricity for your car? That’ll be 40c kW/h now” And given that we’ll be driving used Japanese Leafs and Outlanders and i3s of course, that’ll mean the DC charging stations will have to be CHAdeMO equipped (yes, even for the i3).

I want to disrupt the notion that we have to have a supplier/consumer relationship. Anyone with a charger installed should be able to sell their power to anyone with a car, and whatever rate they (or the market) agree on…  peer-to-peer, without the need for a middleman, and without technical know how.

 

A nicely packaged EMW 20kW ISO charger with CHAdeMO interface and plug will run to around $6000. Making it user-friendly will add a bit more. It would need 90A at 230V (or dial it down to something more manageable on a per customer basis), or around 16A on 3-phase 415V (commercial/industrial). So we’re around double the cost of a similar power IEC 62196 AC EVSE, but with one significant difference – the cars here can use it! Most Japanese imports will support it, and conversions can too if they have a clever BMS with a CAN bus interface and the right programming.