FastCharge consortium evaluating ultrafast charging; 450 kW anticipated
05 December 2017
The German FastCharge project, inaugurated in July 2016, is investigating the limits of fast charging systems for the future. Participants of the three-year project are Allego GmbH, the BMW Group as the consortium leader, Phoenix Contact E-Mobility GmbH, as well as Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG and Siemens AG.
The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is supporting the FastCharge research project with €7.8 million (US$9.3 million). The National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Organization (NOW) is supervising and coordinating the compliance with the grant requirements.
The charging time of electric vehicles depends primarily on current and voltage: the higher the voltage and amperage, the faster the battery can be filled. However, in real life application, these factors cannot be increased at will. The FastCharge project focuses on the study of the technical and physical limits of all components and systems involved in charging, both in the vehicle and the infrastructure.
The anticipated charging capacity is up to 450 kW—three times the maximum charging capacity available at stations today. A voltage of 900 volts and an amplitude of 500 amperes for a projected charging time of under 15 minutes pose major challenges on all components involved.
Consequently, it is planned to cool down charging cables, plugs and vehicle power sockets during the charging process, allowing for the use of more flexible cables with smaller diameters that can be handled like today’s fuel hoses.
For this solution, FastCharge applies the plugs and standards of the Combined Charging System (CCS), which has already stood the test of everyday operations in today’s series-production e-cars. This would mean that vehicles with lower current and voltage demands can easily be serviced at the fast-charging stations too.
The collaborative project is studying all aspects of fast charging in practical application, aiming to introduce and manufacture the required technologies on an industrial scale. Along with analyzing potential capacity increases in the charging process, the project also investigates the prerequisites and processes for the operation of ultrafast charging systems, including an automated registration and billing process for customers.
The combined expertise of the individual project partners ensures that the entire value chain is covered. It is planned that, as early as next year, the complete system will be ready to reach the prototyping stage and be presented to the public. This way, FastCharge will play an important part in increasing long-distance viability and consequently the market acceptance of battery electric vehicles.
They are loosing everybody here.... So far we were expecting not to exceed 400Amps in order not to heat the cables beyond a level that could be easily cooled, and requiring too much thickness... Or even stay not much above 300A to allow to keep up with air cooling and lighter cables that human can manipulate.
I was expecting CCS to go up to 1000V or even 1200V, per recent standardisation claims linked to HPC350, allowing Porsche 350kW to happen with even air cooling on the cables if they whish and accept to forget their 800V initial claim, ... to improve it (Re-lay of the battery required if they increase the voltage... Feasable only if planned properly for it).
I don't see the point of trying to get to 450KW now on one DC channel, and do that with a 500Amps approach and only 900Volts. That does not seam optimal. Only justification may be to remain closer to the 800 Volts announced by Porsche for Mission E initially, so they may not need to re-layout the battery pack for more voltage.
The Tesla Truck announcement with its MegaCharger port offering 4 x 2 high current DC pins clearly shows that next Tesla step will be "MODULARITY", means they will offer may be up to 1600kW but split accross up to 4 x 400kW, in 4 pairs of pins, the Long range 500Miles and 800kWh up to 1000kWh battery using the 4 pairs in one go to recharge 400Miles in 30mn. The next Gen cars being able to take only one pair or 2 pairs and recharge at up to 400kW or 800kW that way on the same Megacharger plugs. If they want a human Trucker to be able to manipulate the huge cable including the 4 x pairs of cables, they will need to be air cooled, hence not exceed 300-350 Amps per pair of cables. So bet tesla may go for up to 1200V ... If thy follow that path. Then if robotic arms are used it could be a different story of course. Wait and see more details on Tesla Megachargers.
But this 450kW with 900V and 500Amps approach makes no sense for me at this stage. It will only confuse German partners who may just stop rolling any hypercharger network...be fore they make up their mind... Good for Tesla again.
Posted by: Patrick Free | 05 December 2017 at 06:00 AM
You can trust German industries to come up with the ideal final solution to quick charge near future extended range BEVs. Producing batteries to accept ultra quick charging, without negative effects, remains a challenge but it will be done.
It would be relatively easy to temporarily/automatically split a large battery pack into 2 to 4 smaller packs for quicker charging with smaller cables.
Posted by: HarveyD | 05 December 2017 at 07:54 AM
You can trust that German industry will follow IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission standards like IEC 61851-1:2017 which currently allows 400 amps and voltage up to 1 000 V AC or up to 1 500 V DC. Both ABB and Heliox (a Dutch company) have fast DC charging systems that exceed 150 kW that are for EV buses. Heliox has an 800 V 600 kW charger.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 05 December 2017 at 09:26 AM
The question is can the batteries take 5C+ charging without deteriorating capacity.
Posted by: SJC | 05 December 2017 at 09:58 AM
We know at least some can take 10C, the question is if they are otherwise fit for purpose.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 06 December 2017 at 04:13 PM
I perfectly know how a grid works and this level of power is impossible to implement. It will cause huge local problems and a raise of electricity costs.
Posted by: And Bri | 07 December 2017 at 07:52 AM
Stop postings false articles and blogging lies. If you want a big battery that charge in 5 minutes than pay yourself ALL THE ASSOCIATED COSTS and stop immediately stealing my tax money for your personnal chargers and battery car. You can also move to mars and stay there with elon musk. But don't bring too much masses as it might change to much earth masses and change the rotation rate of our planet and change the earth orbit and cause severe CLIMATE CHANGE.
Posted by: And Bri | 07 December 2017 at 08:16 AM
gorr, take your mental illness elsewhere.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 07 December 2017 at 10:00 AM