I happily rolled up to an EVGO charger at a Massachusetts Turnpike service area this afternoon. After authorizing with a credit card, the cable unlocked. The plug had two sections: a circular upper portion which seemed like a perfect match for the Clarity socket, and an oval lower portion apparently made for DC charging. I was unable to plug the cable into the Clarity, because that lower section bumped into the plastic at the bottom of the socket. Is that as it should be, i.e. is this just a design problem we have to live with, or is there some workaround, such as an adaptor? PS: The charger had a second cable labeled chademo, which I’m pretty sure is complete incompatible with the Clarity.
chademo is a rapid charger (dc to dc) which the clarity does not support. The J1772 is ac to dc. Hopefully since you were unable to use it didn't bill you anything. Many all-ev vehicles can use rapid chademo plugs -- i.e. Nissan Leaf is a common example of a car that can use chademo. And actually on the point of *ever* charging away from home and work, I'm not sure it ever makes sense. Gas prices are low, and our Clarity will happily run on gas at 40+ mpg. The fee-based charging stations in my area are all more expensive than gas for similar range. And shouldn't happen if you have Clarity service bulletins applied; the only time my Clarity gave me an awful scare is when trying to charge away from home (system power problems resulted-- which days later and a dealer visit later cleared). Anyway, lots of no fun in-between. For me personally- I will never charge at a public charger, and I mean even if it's free. I burned gas-only in my cars for most of my life. If I have to burn gas several times a year on long trips, so be it.
Just to be clear, it wasn’t the Chademo cable I was trying to use; it was the one that had what looked like a J1772 section and a DC section. I mistakenly thought it would fit anyway. As for the economics, no doubt you’re right. I was curious about the process, especially since I expect to trade up to a BEV within a year.
While I agree with this argument in terms of finance and convenience, some owners really aspire to minimizing fossil fuel use to the extent feasible, and to understand how the chargers work in case the pricing landscape changes.
Oh, and sorry if my post came off in any way as disparaging. I didn't mean to imply you did anything crazy. After having owned Clarity for awhile and reading these forums I've become more familiar with the extant charging methods. I do know what the charging connections look like. BTW and not that this matters: My Clarity PHEV is the goal state for me (at least for the foreseeable future). I am not willing to wait anything more than about 15 minutes to refuel my vehicle. I also don't find the current state of the charging networks in the rural west (where I live and travel) to be good enough yet. And yes, to me, I will choose an environmentally friendly option, but only if I perceive it to be practical.
CHAdeMO is a Japanese standard that for a while was making inroads in the U.S. and Europe, but it seems to be falling out of favor as CCS1 (U.S.) and CCS2 (Europe) are becoming more popular. As the name Combo implies and as seen in the first picture below, with CCS the same socket can accept either a DC charger plug or J1772. Whereas as seen in the second photo the Nissan Leaf requires two separate sockets to support both CHAdeMO and J1772, which is why the charge door on the Leaf is so big. .
I would be there with you if there was a PHEV with a slightly better range - say 100 miles - and a higher level of comfort and technology. That’s not the trend, though, and I think PHEVs aren’t going to be around for very long. It’s really disheartening to see all these incompatible charger formats. I hope that gets ironed out soon.
But then there are still two CCS combo configurations, CCS1 (US) and CCS2 (Europe). How did this happen? Who's going to cave? (Let me guess: not the US even though Europe buys so many more EVs.)
And people tend to forget that the largest market in the world has yet another standard - China GB/T. Japan and China are pushing for a new "worldwide" standard. An updated version of CHAdeMO called ChaoJi. They are considering designing a connector backward compatible with CCS Tesla currently builds cars with 4 different charge port configurations depending on market - US/Japan get the "Tesla" plug on all models, EU gets Mennekes Type 2 on the S and X but CCS2 on the Model 3, China gets a dual port Tesla and GB/T. The differing plugs are at least partly due to differing power standards, single vs 3 phase AC, etc.
Is a worldwide standard really necessary? Only a small fraction of the cars built for one region of the world are imported to another region. Having a single standard for the Americas would be important, but it really doesn't matter to us what China or Europe does and vice-versa. If someone wants to import an exotic European electric car they can but they would probably only be able to charge it at home and not take it on trips.
And now I'm reading about 3-phase charging. The J1772 connector is designed for single-phase charging but MINI says the upcoming MINI Cooper SE can charge at 7.4 kW (even less than the Clarity PHEV's 7.68 kW) using single-phase 240-Volts, or 11 kW using 3-phase 240-Volts. What kind of connector can deliver 3-phase AC?
Mennekes Type 2. This is the connector used on Euro spec cars - even on Tesla's (and their European superchargers use it as well) Charge port on European Spec Model S
