Fast Charging Systems on the Way, 30 Minutes or Less To Recharge an EV

Fast Charging Systems on the Way, 30 Minutes or Less To Recharge an EV

By John O'Dell January 12, 2010

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

The rapid-charging systems that will be vital to successful nationwide marketing of electic vehicles are beginning to make an appearance - the first we know of just announced today by Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade Power Technologies.

The companies have combined forces to develop a stand-alone EV fast-charging "pump" that will be sold to gas stations operators and other entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the electric filling station business.

Coulomb CEO Richard Lowenthal acknowledges that the stations aren't cheap - about $40,000 for the charger and installation costs in the neighborhood of $20,000 - but says customers already are knocking at the door.

"We are 100 percent assured" of sales when marketing begins in the third quarter, he told Green Car Advisor in an interview this morning.

The so-called Level III charging stations, which look a lot like gas pumps in order to keep things as familiar as possible as people switch to the new technology, will feed power to repleted batteries from dedicated 480-volt, 125-amp circuits via a fast-charge connector developed by the Tokyo Power Co. in Japan and now in use in a test program there.

There is no global or even national standard for rapid charging connectors, but the connector used by the Coulomb-AckerWade system is compatible with the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric cars that will go on sale in limited numbers in the U.S. later this year (the Mitsubishi already is on sale in Japan and the Leaf will be sold there at the same time it launches here). It also is compatible with the Renault Fluence ZE  that will be sold initially in Israel and Denmark

Lowenthal said that both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles can use the fast chargers, which are compatible with all of the battery types now in use. Cars do require special on-board connectors and dedicated  battery management software to enable them to accept rapid charging, though. 

Aker Wade, based in Charlottesville, Va. and a longtime developer of industrial fast-charging stations for fork lifts and electric trucks, is manufacturing the commercial station.

Coulomb, located near San Francisco, is supplying the networking system that enables users to access the chargers with a magnetic card and lets the chargers communicate with users via cell phone to convey information such as charger locations, power prices and the progress of a charging operation when a car is plugged in.

Coulomb also is the supplier of ChargePoint 220-volt networked chargers used in private and public charging programs in numerous cities across the country. Aker Wade has sold more than 8,000 industrial rapid-chargers to customers in eight nations.
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Photo courtesy of Aker Wade Power Technologies

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.