Combined Charging System

Combo 2 DC plug

The Combined Charging System is a quick charging method for battery electric vehicles delivering high-voltage direct current via a special electrical connector derived from the SAE J1772 (IEC Type 1) or IEC Type 2 connector. As the plug is a combination of an AC connector with a DC option the resulting connector is also called Combo Coupler and the variant with Type 2 is abbreviated as Combo2.

Automobile manufactures that support CCS include: Volkswagen, General Motors, BMW, Daimler, Ford, FCA and Hyundai.^[1][2] The CharIN consortium that controls the CCS standard^[3][4] is working on 200 kW charging rate and in a charging rate of 350 kW^[5][6] beginning in 2017.

In the United States, BMW and VW claim that the East Coast and West Coast corridors have complete CCS networks.^[7]

Competing standards include CHAdeMO and Tesla Supercharger.

History

The revival of interest in electric cars brought about a need for a recharging network. Charging station deployment proliferated to fulfil this need - in the beginning these were accessing the abundant AC mains electricity using a variety of plugs throughout the world. The standardization in the IEC 62196 for higher current charging connectors brought about different systems with Type 1 being used primarily in Northern America and Japan and variants of Type 2 being used elsewhere. The SAE and ACEA want to avoid a similar situation for outstanding standardization of DC charging - they developed the plan to add common DC wires to the existing AC connector types such that there is only one "global envelope" that fits all DC charging stations.^[8]

Combo plug for DC charging (using only the signal pins of Type2) and the Combo inlet on the vehicle (allowing also AC charging)

On the 15th International VDI-Congress of the Association of German Engineers the proposal of a "Combined Charging System" (CCS) was unveiled on 12. October 2011 in Baden-Baden. Seven car makers (Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen) have agreed to introduce the Combined Charging System in mid-2012.^[9][10] This defines a single connector pattern on the vehicle side that offers enough space for a Type 1 or Type 2 connector along with space for a two pin DC connector allowing up to 200 Ampere. The prototype implementations for up to 100 kW were shown on the EVS26 in Los Angeles in May 2012.^[11] Specifications for DC charging in the IEC 62196-3 draft give a range up to 125 A with up to 850 V.^[12]

The seven auto manufacturers have also agreed to use HomePlug GreenPHY as the communication protocol.^[13] The prototype for the matching plug has been developed by Phoenix Contact with the goal to withstand 10,000 connect cycles.^[14] The standardization proposal has been sent to the IEC in January 2011.^[15] The request to use a PLC protocol for the Vehicle2Grid communication was flagged back in September 2009 in a joint presentation of BMW, Daimler and VW on California Air Resource Board ZEV Technology Symposium.^[16] This is competing with the CAN Bus proposal from Japan (including CHAdeMO) and China (separate DC connector proposal) and notably none of their car manufacturers has signed up to the Combined Charging System so far. China had been involved in early stages of the development of the extra DC pins however.^[14]

Volkswagen has built the first public CCS quick charge station with 50 kW DC in Wolfsburg in June 2013 to support the test drives of the upcoming VW E-Up that is supposed to be delivered with a DC rapid charger connector for the Combined Charging System.^[17] Two weeks later BMW has opened its first CCS rapid charge station in support of the upcoming BMW i3.^[18] On occasion of the second EV World Summit in June 2013 both a Chademo and a Volkswagen-group spokesperson have pointed out that a concurrency between Chademo and CCS is not required as the additional cost of a dual-protocol rapid charge station is a mere 5% - thus multi-standard DC chargers are being advocated by Chademo, Volkswagen and Nissan.^[19]

In Germany the Charging Interface Initiative e. V. (CharIN) was founded by car makers and suppliers (Audi, BMW, Daimler, Mennekes, Opel, Phoenix Contact, Porsche, TÜV SÜD and Volkswagen) to promote the adoption of the Combined Charging System. They noted in a press release that the majority of cars can not charge with more than 50 kW, so that was the first common power output of CCS stations to be built during 2015. The next step was the standardization of charging stations with 150 kW output that they showed in October 2015, looking to a future system with 350 kW output.^[20] Volvo joined CharIN in 2016.^[21] Tesla Motors joined CharIN in March 2016.^[22] Lucid Motors (previously Atieva) joined June 15, 2016. ^[23] Faraday Future joined in June 2016.

The soon to be released Chevrolet Bolt/Opel Ampera-e uses this CCS standard for 50 kW quick charging. Maximum charge rate for Renault Zoe will be 100 kW.^[24] As part of the settlement of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, VW will spend $2 billion in the U.S. over the next 10 years on CCS and other charging infrastructure.^[25]

In November 2016, Ford, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and BMW announced building a 350 kW charge network with 400 stations in Europe, beginning in 2017.^[26]

References