GM Volt Forum banner

BMW, VW Partner on Electric Car DC Charging Stations

4K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  Taser54 
#1 · (Edited)
BMW and Volkswagen announced they are teaming up and working with ChargePoint to create nearly 100 DC fast charge electric vehicle charging stations along heavily traveled roads on the East and West Coasts.

Each station is expected to include up to two 50 kW direct current Fast chargers, or 24 kW direct current Combo Fast chargers compatible with BMW and Volkswagen electric vehicles, as well as many other models.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2475613,00.asp
 
#4 ·
I noted that the Bolt was talked about as having three charging options, one being DC charging, even at home. I was under the impression that a home DC charging unit would be cost prohibitive compared to a 240V L2 EVSE.
 
#7 ·
I agree, but it would be pointless for any other EV maker to deploy 90-120kW stations like Tesla because only Tesla cars have large enough batteries to handle those power levels. BMW's i3 has a 22kWh pack... the most you'd want to charge that is 2C, which is around the 50kW cited in the article. Charging at 120kW would be almost 6C and would be too hard on the battery.

Still, if they wanted to future-proof their stations, you'd think they'd go to a similar power level as Tesla. This is likely an indication that they don't have plans for EVs with much larger batteries, unfortunately. Also, it's not clear to me from the article if they are developing a new standard or if these are CHAdeMO or SAE spec units. We don't need more fragmentation...
 
#8 ·
These new stations are using the SAE CCS standard which GM is also supporting on the Spark EV and Bolt.

Meanwhile, according to GreenCarReports and other sites:
Volkswagen said at last week's Detroit Auto Show that it will include CCS fast-charging on every plug-in vehicle it builds, including plug-in hybrids as well as battery-electric cars.
Also, meanwhile, the 2016 Volt only charges at 3.6 kW....
 
#10 ·
I don't see a problem for the future of the CCS standard. Currently, the SAE DC level 2 standard allows for 90KW.

The proposed SAE DC level 3 charging standard will allow up to 240KW levels.

Once it looks like vechicles will need that charging level, SAE will finalize the DC level 3 standard.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top