APR 20

With the oncoming numbers of plug-in hybrids, extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), and all-electric vehicles, drivers are going to be looking for places to charge their vehicles.

At present, there is no standard for an electrical connector on a car needing an electric charge. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1772 Task Force is working to set a common specification and configuration for the vehicle charging connection for all cars.

This is the connector for the car-side (not a new wall-socket connection) that is being proposed; there was some misunderstanding about the intent of this in the post on GM's FastLane Blog. The connection to the residential electrical service (for North America, at least) would be with a standard 120v wall outlet.

With SAE J1772, we’re defining what a common electric vehicle conductive charging system architecture will look like for all major automakers in North America, but more importantly, we’re working to resolve general physical, electrical and performance requirements so these systems can be manufactured for safe public use.

Gas stations and fuel fillers on cars have evolved a common infrastructure. Those old enough to remember may recall the changeover when unleaded gas was introduced, and new pump nozzles and fuel fillers were mandated to keep drivers from accidentally putting old, regular gas into cars designed for unleaded. Without such a standard in place for electric vehicles,it would be as though you had to carry your own hose in your car, so that you could fill it with your brand of connector. A common standard will make it easier for public charging locations to have a single connector that can be used for any vehicle, making it faster and easier for electric vehicles to be more widely useable.

Link: GM FastLane Blog

Comments (7)

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written by Rohit Mishra, April 20, 2009

Standards yet again!! This post clearly shows why we need to set on standards! In the short run, I wish we can have global emission standards and kilometer per liter, gas emission standards etc. The presence of Euro V, Bharat V, xyz ........ is redundant. There should be one agreed upon standard so that manufacturers don't get a chance to eyewash consumers by exploiting the contradictions present in different standards.
A laudable move

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NO NO NO - Choose the European standard
written by Mika Sjöman, April 20, 2009

Yeah - blogg the hell out of the car companies if they try to do regional coding on cars! It´s like the horrible DVD encoding but worse.
If we are now having the 400 volt standard charger in Europe as a standard, US should follow. The difference in charging a battery with 120 volts and 400 volts is like 6X faster charging time! If you just amp up to 230 volts, you almost half the charging time so 400 should really be the standard!

Repeat after me: fast as hell - yes we can.

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european standard
written by hyperspaced, April 22, 2009

I was not aware that we had standardized the charging voltage to 400V. The charging time largely depends on the battery technology being used, so higher voltage will decrease the charging time somewhat, especially with newer technology batteries.
However, if 400V is the standards how will we be charging vehicles from our house? Upconverter? For that amperage? It will be huge and heavy and needed to be carrier with the car. Not to mention the conversion loss...

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Don't Fear High Voltage
written by Ken Grubb, April 22, 2009

hyperspaced,

I certainly understand the desire to charge from home as there is no nationwide recharging infrastructure in place, yet. However, in time, I suspect recharging an EV will be little different than refueling an ICE--you drive to the refueling station.

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written by Matt Peffly, April 29, 2009

You mean we will not have to have a different charge plug for each car. What fun is that why can't it be like cell phones where every phone has a different plug.

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European standard
written by John Henriksen, June 15, 2009

There should definetly be a global standard for this, but there are several problems. In Europe the standard voltages are 230 or 400 volts, and in America the standard voltages are 120 or 240 volts. The proposed standard for charging electric vehicles is 400 V 3 phase 63 A. This gives 43 kW, which means charging a 50 kWh battery pack in a little more than one hour. This kind of power is not available at normal homes, so it will probably for the most part be offered at designated charging stations. What we need is a standard plug and intelligent built in chargers that senses the available voltage and adapts to that and also draws the current that the actual otlet is able to deliver. This will require a data link built into the standard plug. I really hope that we can reach a common global standard for charging electric cars.

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written by Fred, July 28, 2009

soon the charging problem will be eliminated

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