CHAdeMO and China are working together on a ‘next-gen ultra-fast’ EV charging standard

The world of electric vehicle charging standards is still fragmented, but some leaders are starting to clearly emerge.

While most automakers and EV charging station makers seem to be turning to CCS, China, which developed its own standard, is now turning to CHAdeMO to develop a next-gen ultra-fast EV charging standard.

CHAdeMO Association announced last week that it signed “an MoU with China Electricity Council (CEC) for co-development of next generation ultra-fast EV charging standard.”

They plan for the new charging standard to be backward compatible with both CHAdeMO’s and China’s existing standard.

As part of its extensive plans to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, the government unveiled a new charging standard last year.

It didn’t wait for companies to back it and instead, it announced that it will itself deploy 12,000 new charging stations across the country and it is also working on an incentive plan for EV buyers to install home charging stations – they are planning to unlock $20 billion in financing for 4.8 million residential charging stations.

Now they are partnering with CHAdeMO, a popular standard backed by Japanese automakers, to bring the standard to the next level with faster charging.

CHAdeMO’s Secretary General Dave Yoshida said about the announcement:

“We are pleased to work together with CEC to develop an ultra-fast charging standard to prepare for the future charging needs, while ensuring safety and interoperability, which is a core value of CHAdeMO protocol. We believe the outcome of this joint development will pave the way towards a single harmonised standard in the future.”

By ultra-fast, they are talking about a capacity of up to 1000V and 400A for 400 kW charging that the association announced earlier this year.

At the lastest CHAdeMO Association General Assembly, they said that they are seeing “healthy growth” with “over 18 000 chargers installed across 71 countries.”