Japan and China team up for high power chargers

China and Japan have announced plans to cooperate on developing a new charging standard for ultra-fast vehicle chargers with more than 500 kW. A statement of intent will be signed by the CHAdeMO association and the China Electricity Council (CEC) in August.

The Japanese as well as Chinese governments are both supporting the venture, which may pave the way towards a unified charging norm in Asia. The plan is to complete the project by 2020.

++ Kindly see our updates regarding the development of the standard below. ++

While the Combined Charging System (CCS) has been adopted as the future standard in Europe and some other locations, Japan has been aiming for the CHAdeMO plan while China has been developing their own GB/T standard. Tesla has also been working on their own format, however will be including an extra GB plug specifically for the Chinese market.

This new alliance will shake things up though as they will be the biggest venture into high power charging technology on the planet, and can be viewed as a move against other charging standard developers. The venture is not only focusing on the shape of the charging plug, but also includes protocols. Another important factor in the cooperation is that they plan to make the new chargers backwards compatible for CHAdeMO and GB/T standards, which should appease early adopters.

The CHAdeMO association announced the protocol for CHAdeMO 2.0 in June, which allows for charging up to 400 kW and can charge with up to 1,000 volt using liquid-cooled cables on the same plug, meaning less hardware updates for consumers. CHAdeMO 2.0 also included provisions for electric trucks and buses, which are expected to play a large role in infrastructure upgrades.

China is also planning on upgrading their GB/T standard, which will then overtake both the CCS and CHAdeMO standards, at 350 and 400 kW, respectively, with a maximum charge of 900 kW on the new GB/T. China is looking to meet demands for their planned EV infrastructure upgrades, which will soon require widespread fast charging solutions for buses and trucks.

Update August, 28, 2018: The CHAdeMO Association and the China Electricity Council (CEC) have officially signed the agreement to develop a common fast charging standard.

Update, November, 06, 2018: The two organisations have since progressed their plans even further. Now their standard for fast-charging shall become global. The statement reads: “With strong support by both governments, further acceleration of this joint activity and roll-out of its outcome to third countries are expected.”

chademo.com, asia.nikkei.com, asahi.com, chademo.com (update, August), chademo.com (update, November)