Chicago's Public Charging Stations Won't Work With Ford Focus EV

Chicago's Public Charging Stations Won't Work With Ford Focus EV

By year's end the Chicago area will have more public rapid-charging stations than anywhere else in the world - capable of juicing up the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV when they start selling in the area a year or so from now - but the super-fast chargers will not be compatible with the Ford Focus EV that will be available in Chicago and its suburbs later this year.

So reported the Chicago Tribune in today's edition. The paper also reported that by the time Chicago's 73 direct-current fast-charging stations are installed next January, they could be mostly obsolete. That's because the Chicago system is using a Japanese-developed charging protocol and there's a big effort in the U.S. to adopt a difference standard for rapid charging.

"Whenever you get cutting-edge technology, you get new standards. Like with Betamax and VHS," Oliver Hazimeh of PRTM, a global management consulting firm, told the Trib. "On the other hand, it's very expensive to build out these things and then over time have to swap them out as new standards are developed."

The company behind the stations, San Diego-based 350Green, promised to upgrade the equipment if a new standard results. The charging stations are priced at $65,000 each, and the cost of a retrofit on top of that is unclear.

"The big challenge or battle right now is on what standard is going to be developed for what people call fast or faster charging," Jack Pokers of SAE International, which develops North American standards for automotive electrical connectors, told the newspaper.

The newspaper reported last week that Chicago has awarded a $1.9 million contract to 350Green to install 280 electric vehicle charging stations in Chicago and the suburbs. About two-thirds of the $8.7 million project will be funded through public subsidies.

The maker of the fast-charge stations contends the technology will remain relevant.

"I don't think that the technology is something where there's suddenly going to be a completely different way to do this," said Kristen Helsel, vice president of electric vehicle solutions at AeroVironment, which manufactures the charging stations that 350Green is installing in the Chicago area. "The ones that go out today will be absolutely applicable well into the future."

In an interview with Green Car Advisor, Ford spokesman Dan Pierce confirmed that the first-generation Focus Electric does support direct-current fast charging right now. But he said the model will support DC fast charging once the SAE creates a standard for the outlet.

"Ford wants to have a universal solution as far as DC outlets, rather than have just a Ford unique solution," he said. "So, we're waiting for SAE to make a decision on what that outlet is."

SAE is considering the Japanese protocol, but the group is under pressure from General Motors and other automakers to not use the outlet that is compatible with the Leaf and the i-MiEV in part to create a problem for their makers.

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.