More and more, it can be – thanks to fast chargers from ABB
Electric cars – cleaner, faster and more affordable than ever. They have quickly caught up to gasoline and diesel vehicles in all the main ways that matter. Except one. Call it the petrol-station conundrum. (Or if you’re American, the “filling-station” gap.)
With conventional cars, no one leaves home worrying about whether they will make it back before they run out of fuel with nowhere to stop along the way to quickly top up the tank. But until very recently the utility of electronic vehicles (EV) has been limited by the need to periodically dock to a charging terminal for a long session of battery refreshing. That issue has been a roadblock to wider consumer adoption of EVs.
But innovations by ABB are beginning to bridge the petrol-station gap.
Ample evidence will be seen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where ABB has installed fast-charging stations that can recharge an electric car’s battery in a matter of minutes.
A total of eight of the charging stations will be in place in three well-trafficked spots in Davos. After the WEF meeting concludes, the charging stations will be owned and continued to be operated by the local utility, Elektrizitätswerke Davos.
So far, more than 6,000 of ABB’s fast-charging stations have been installed around the world, with more being added almost daily. Supported by digital network capabilities that can handle billing and payment, the charging stations are beginning to function as the EV equivalent of the petrol-station fuel pump. For instance in Germany, where more than 200 of the ABB chargers are being installed along the autobahn, the service station operator Tank & Rast plans to operate the chargers at many of the same sites where it sells petrol and diesel.
Iceland added 15 ABB chargers along its highway that can charge one of the over 1,400 electric vehicles that are on the road in 15-30 minutes. In Bulgaria fast-charging stations from ABB can now be found on key roads across the country, while a further roll-out of the network is underway. The Colombo City area in Sri Lanka will get new fleet of connected, fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers from ABB, part of the ABB Ability™ portfolio. The connected mobility solutions, will not only facilitate more efficient charging of electric vehicles across the region, but will also include remote monitoring and trouble- shooting capabilities.
The next step in utility
The arrival of widespread ultra-fast charging marks a turning point in the practicality of e-mobility.
Electric cars are climate-friendlier than their fossil-fuel counterparts, of course, assuming the source of electricity is environmentally sustainable. That’s the case in Davos, where the local grid is supplied by a combination of hydropower and solar.
And in recent years, EV performance has improved significantly, equaling and often exceeding petroleum-dependent cars and trucks.
Battery prices have dropped, making it feasible to produce affordable vehicles with a range of 200 miles or more. Automakers offer a growing variety of models, extending from basic commuter transport to luxury sedans and commercial vehicles.
Yet for even the enthusiastic early adopters of EVs, owning and driving an electric car has always required painstaking trip planning. Whether charging the car overnight at home or outside the office during the workday – or during long stops elsewhere – the driver could take no trip, or a leg of a trip, beyond the battery’s single-charge range.
The situation was like driving a car with a 12-liter gasoline tank that could be refilled only by teaspoon – if the gasoline could even be found along the route.
If you’ve never heard if range anxiety, that’s what it is.
Carmakers have been doing their part to solve this dilemma.
Take Nissan, maker of the popular Nissan Leaf all-electric car. Nissan has developed an option it calls Quick Charge Port. The port enables the battery to be replenished in 30 minutes. Quick Charge is based on CHAdeMO – one of the industry standards supported by ABB’s charging stations.
Other fast-charge protocols that provide roughly similar charging times include the Combined Charging Standard (CCS), and the proprietary Tesla Supercharger network.
The growing number of fast-charging stations at public locations are a vital convenience for EV travelers. But the real breakthrough will involve recharging stops that take are barely longer than those required to refuel a gasoline or diesel vehicle.
Automakers are stepping up to this challenge. Late in 2017, a group of car companies announced plans for Ionity – a venture that will build a network of ultra-fast charging stations across Europe by 2020. The carmakers – VW’s Porsche and Audi divisions; BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Ford – are all ones with which ABB has collaborated on EV technologies.
The new standard
For now, the state of the charging art is ABB’s Terra HP. At 175 to 350 kilowatts, it is the most powerful car charging station to reach the market. Capable of replenishing batteries in as little as 12 minutes, it is compatible with a wide range of voltage requirements and supports both the CHAdeMO and CCS standards, among others.
No less important from the driver’s point of view is Terra HP’s integrated payment system, accessed with a touch-screen interface. This feature takes advantage of ABB Ability™ Connected Services, a digital networking suite that links the charging station to payment platforms and smart grid systems. The cloud-based ABB Ability connection also makes possible smart trip planning for travelers by indicating where the next recharge stop will be.
What’s more, ABB Ability Connected Services also enable remote diagnostics and repair for the charging station, as well as over-the-air software updates.
The Terra HP approach will give greater flexibility to car and battery makers as they devise ever more flexible and efficient EVs. Until now, efforts to extend the vehicles’ range has involved building and installing ever-larger lithium-ion battery packs into the vehicles – something made feasible by falling prices for battery cells.
But such a strategy increases vehicle weight, which in turn requires bigger brakes and a stronger car structure. Those requirements work against the philosophy of energy-efficient, sustainable transportation that is the motive force behind EVs.
ABB’s Terra HP ultra-fast charger takes the onus off the battery by putting more of the solution in the network. By providing drivers with as much 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) of battery reserve in a 4-minute stop, ABB’s Terra HP ultra-fast charging advances will hasten the arrival of a fully sustainable transportation system in the era of e-mobility.
It’s the sort of convenience that for families and businesses alike will finally ensure that practical, zero-emissions transportation becomes an everyday reality.
