EV Charging Techology Innovation Continues: Medium Voltage Fast Charger

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Texas22Step

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This may or may not ever see the light of day in the market as a commercial product, but it does offer an exciting glimpse of what the future may offer EV owners in terms of fast charging, etc. Kudos to North Carolina State University researchers:

"New Electric Car Charger is More Efficient, 10 Times Smaller Than Current Tech"

https://news.ncsu.edu/2018/10/better-fast-charger/
 
Does it require 3-phase power or can it handle single phase?

Yes, I like the technology and believe it is credible. The challenge is handling the invariable power spikes (aka. lightning surges.) At home I have 240VAC, 200A, service, 48 kV, realistic 38 kV. Give me one at 25-38kV, single phase, and I would be perfectly happy. It needs to sustain the house voltage but we're looking at a significant improvement over the 7.4kW, built-in charger.

Have they provided a CCS interface or just CHAdeMO shown in the photo?

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
Does it require 3-phase power or can it handle single phase?

Yes, I like the technology and believe it is credible. The challenge is handling the invariable power spikes (aka. lightning surges.) At home I have 240VAC, 200A, service, 48 kV, realistic 38 kV. Give me one at 25-38kV, single phase, and I would be perfectly happy. It needs to sustain the house voltage but we're looking at a significant improvement over the 7.4kW, built-in charger.

Have they provided a CCS interface or just CHAdeMO shown in the photo?

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...

I am not sure of the answers to your very good questions, but I have sent an email to one of the researchers at NC State asking for more information than either the press release I linked originally (or their web site) reveals. I think that the home charging market will ultimately be a much more substantial commercial market than public charging stations, but I have been known to be wrong before.

I will add any further information from NC State to this thread when I get answers.
 
Quoting from the press release:

The current version of the MVFC charges at the same speed as existing charging stations. That’s because this iteration of the MVFC was designed to operate at 50 kW, which is the power level of a typical fast charger.

However, the research team is in the process of building a next generation MVFC that handles much higher power, capable of charging more vehicles and charging them more quickly.
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Well it's good that they're working on a higher power version, because 50 kW isn't going to cut it. The industry is moving to 350 kW, and that's only the next step. Eventually, as the EV revolution progresses and EVs are built to be charged faster and faster, I expect to see fast chargers (or superfast chargers) providing power at 1 to perhaps 1.4 MW (1000 to 1400 kW).

What is missing from this press release is any mention of price, so my guess is that it's a lot more expensive than current technology. Of course, with mass production, that price could drop quite rapidly, but they need to demonstrate that the tech has commercial potential first. They also don't address the issue of longevity. Will this tech stand up to years of use without failure?
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My interest is our 2014 BMW i3-REx can only take 48-50 kW from any fast DC charger. The built-in charger can only accept 7.4 kW.

Bob Wilson
 
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