CHAdeMO is pushing for faster electric vehicle charging with new 400 kW protocol

The battle of different electric vehicle charging standards is still very much ongoing, but they all have something in common: they are all pushing for faster charging.

CHAdeMO has now unveiled its new protocol for 400 kW ‘ultra-fast’ charging.

CCS, Tesla, and now even the new Chinese national standard, are all picking up steam, but CHAdeMO is still very much alive – thanks mostly to Nissan and the Leaf.

The CHAdeMO Association just held its 2018 General Assembly in Tokyo’s Daiba district on 30 May 2018 and it noted “healthy growth” with “over 18 000 chargers installed across 71 countries.”

While it has a worldwide reach, the standard is especially popular in Japan, its home market, and in Europe.

CHAdeMO is still leading in Europe though CCS is catching up quickly in preparation for several new EVs coming to market with a focus on CCS charging:

At the moment, the vast majority of those charging stations are only capable of a 50 kW charge rates, which is also what most EVs with CHAdeMO are capable of accepting.

100 kW to 200 kW charging stations are also coming in higher numbers, but now CHAdeMO is now pushing for 400 kW.

CHAdeMO 2.0 now allows for up to 400 kW – competitive with the latest CCS “ultra-fast” stations currently being built around the world as part of new networks.

CHAdeMO’s Secretary General Dave Yoshida said about the release of the new protocol:

The publication of the new version of the protocol is part of our broader efforts to expand the CHAdeMO protocol to a wider variety of vehicles, including trucks and buses. With the CAN-based communication, it will be a relatively simple but reliable option to charge large commercial vehicles and other industrial applications. Combining these vehicles with the V2X technology, for which CHAdeMO is the only enabler today amongst the major international charging standards with readily available products in the market, fleet owners would benefit from an even larger set of options to rethink the TCO (total cost of ownership) of their vehicles, as these vehicles can not only charge but discharge electricity and support the Grid.

Here’s CHAdeMO’s full annual report

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