CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Iss 17 JAN/FEB 2015

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 17 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

Kia Soul EV Kia introduces a strong contender to the growing EV market p. 46

Interplex Integrates Inverter Design

Tony Williams: EV Advocate to Entrepreneur

ChargePoint Launches Residential EVSE

Argonne Hosts Interoperability Olympics

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p. 68

p. 74

p. 80

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THE TECH CONTENTS

20 | Integrating the future

Power electronics, the automotive industry and the continuous drive for smarter design

20

26 | Screw it in and drive

Save weight and space with integrated motor and inverter

30 | The curious case of 26

ionic liquids

New electrolytes could open the door for higher-voltage batteries and ultracaps

current events 10 |

Energy Power Systems plans new battery plant USABC funds testing of Seeo solid polymer battery

30

11 | 13 |

Toyota tests silicon carbide power semiconductors Ioxus introduces module automotive ultracaps UQM patents motor using non-rare earth magnets

14 | 15 | 17 |

Bosch and BMW establish retirement plan for batteries Automotive semiconductor market up 10% to $29 billion Boston Power to expand Chinese battery plants New process stabilizes Li-S battery cathode

18 |

13

Scalable axle module promises cost savings Fuji Pigment develops new type of aluminum-air battery

19 |

SolidEnergy aims to double EV battery range by 2017

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

46 | Kia

Soul EV

Kia introduces a strong contender to the growing EV market

46

56 | EVs and cold weather

FleetCarma CEO digs into the data

90 | Chevrolet Bolt

GM offers a first look at the next generation of plug-in vehicles

56

current events 38 | 39 | 40 |

Chevrolet unveils new and improved 2016 Volt VIA expects to sell 50,000 vehicles per year by 2018 Mandatory EV sounds delayed until 2018 Polaris buys Brammo’s motorcycle business

41 | 42 |

90

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV US launch delayed again Honda shows FCV, plans new EV and PHEV models BYD taking pre-orders for Tang plug-in SUV

43 |

Federal grants to pay for 28 Proterra electric buses DARPA funds SilentHawk hybrid military motorcycle

44 | 45 |

Tesla releases detailed range figures for Model S family Lux Research: Cheap oil will temporarily impact EV sales

38

68

68 | Advocate to entrepreneur

Tony Williams on his journey into the EVSE business

74 | Charging into your home

ChargePoint’s CEO on the design of the newest residential EVSE

74

80 | The Testival

Argonne National Labs hosts an interoperability Olympics to test DC fast chargers and EVs

80

62 |

Danish network adds 100 ABB DC fast chargers DOE and utilities produce EV charging impact report

63 | 64 | 65 |

Nissan and Hydro-Québec partner to expand public charging CCS fast charging corridors coming to East and West Coasts Germany plans push for more charging stations Kansas City Power & Light to install 1,000 charging stations

66 |

64

Georgia Power launches $12-million EVSE program AeroVironment’s new TurboDock modular EVSE

67 |

Minnesota sets off-peak rates as low as 3.3 cents/kWh

Publisher’s Note Full Speed Ahead When Charged launched in late 2011, the future of the EV industry was anything but certain. It looked like the electric car was returning from the dead, but for those who lived through the EV insurgence of the early 2000s, an uneasiness lingered.

These days, however, there is a clear, seemingly unstoppable momentum. Only a few weeks into 2015, the new year has brought a plethora of positive indicators.

First and foremost, GM confirmed the rumors that it is working on a longerrange, lower-cost EV. The Bolt concept vehicle was unveiled, and official plans to actually produce an EV “based on the concept” quickly followed. It was the first glimpse of the new generation that this industry is anxiously awaiting. Along with a redesigned Nissan LEAF and Tesla’s Model 3, GM’s new entrant will help usher in the era of longer-range mass-market EVs expected to start arriving in 2017.

GM’s other January unveiling, an all-new Volt, revealed some notable strides in technology development. For example, the battery pack - with cells provided

by LG Chem - now has a capacity of 18.4 kWh, up from the 2015 Volt’s 17.1 kWh pack, with a 20% increase in volumetric energy density. The new pack has 192 cells, down from 288, is slightly smaller dimensionally and 30 pounds lighter overall - all while increasing the electric range from 38 to 50 miles. In other words, incremental engineering advancements are continuously improving the attributes of an already highly-capable plug-in vehicle fleet.

On the infrastructure front, charging stations continue to be deployed with a new enthusiasm. In the past weeks we’ve heard some bold plans from a variety of different EV stakeholders. First, BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint announced an initiative to create express DC fast charging corridors on the East and West Coasts of the US. Then, Kansas City Power & Light shared plans to install more than 1,000 EV charging stations in the Kansas City region. The announcement was the most ambitious installation planned by an electric utility in the US, that is until a few days later when Pacific Gas and Electric asked California state regulators for permission to build an estimated 25,000 stations across its service area. If the PG&E project can clear regulatory hurdles, installation will begin in 2017.

Beyond wishful thinking, it’s a combination of technology developments and new commitments from the key players that points to a bright future for the EV industry.

EVs are here. Try to keep up.

Christian Ruoff Publisher

Christian Ruoff Publisher Laurel Zimmer Associate Publisher Charles Morris Senior Editor Markkus Rovito Associate Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Technology Editor Erik Fries Contributing Editor Nick Sirotich Illustrator & Designer Tome Vrdoljak Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Michael Kent Charles Morris Markkus Rovito Christian Ruoff Joey Stetter Matt Stevens Contributing Photographers Kārlis Dambrāns Mark Mastropietro Mike Mozart Robert Nordqvist Paul Sableman Zgonnik Cover Image Courtesy of Kia North America Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact Info@ChargedEVs.com

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A CLOSER LOOK AT SEMICONDUCTOR SWITCHES P. 16

PHINERGY’S ALUMINUM-AIR BATTERIES P. 26

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400 MPH: THE BUCKEYE BULLET P. 78

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CURRENTevents

Image courtesy of Seeo

USABC funds testing of Seeo solid polymer battery

Energy Power Systems plans new battery plant Battery-maker Energy Power Systems plans to establish a high-volume manufacturing facility in Pontiac, Michigan. The new 150,000-square-foot facility will produce batteries for use in start/stop and microhybrid vehicles, utility-scale distributed energy storage, renewable energy integration, and fast-charging infrastructure for EVs. Full-scale production is expected to begin in early 2016. Initial annual capacity will be 500 MWh, the equivalent of 500,000 start/stop vehicle batteries.

“The EPS team has successfully completed the product development phase and we are now launching the commercialization phase,” said CEO Subhash Dhar. “This major milestone is a testament to the proven performance attributes of our PLM technology, which offers a superior value proposition for our customers’ applications.”

The city of Pontiac welcomed the new facility, which will repurpose a former GM plant, and is expected to create at least 300 new high-tech and manufacturing jobs. “The use of the property is a perfect fit for the area,” said City Administrator Joseph M. Sobota.

10

The US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) has awarded a $299,000 contract to Seeo Inc. of Hayward, California. The nine-month technology assessment program will focus on testing Seeo’s elevated-operating-temperature solid polymer battery modules. The competitively bid contract award is co-funded by the DOE and includes a Seeo costshare of at least 50%.

Under the contract, Seeo will deliver its DryLyte battery modules to USABC for testing and thirdparty validation. These modules are based on Seeo’s current cell technology, which provides an energy density of 220 Wh/kg. The company reports that it has cells cycling with an energy density of 350 Wh/ kg, with a future target of 400 Wh/kg, roughly twice the level of batteries used in today’s EVs. Seeo’s cell design couples a solid lithium metal anode with a conventional porous lithium iron phosphate cathode. Seeo’s electrolyte is entirely solid-state with no flammable or volatile components.

“As part of this contract Seeo will deliver several hundred cells from our pilot manufacturing line assembled in battery modules, each module providing 1.65 kWh storage capacity,” said CEO Hal Zarem.

“We welcome the opportunity to independently validate their performance as we prepare to introduce the next leap forward in electric vehicle battery technology.”

THE TECH

Power semiconductors are key components of the power control units (PCUs) used in all types of vehicles with electric powertrains - EVs, hybrids and fuel cell vehicles. Current power semiconductors are leaky, accounting for around 20% of a vehicle’s electrical losses, so raising their efficiency could be a rewarding area of study.

Toyota has been working on silicon carbide power semiconductors, which are ten times more efficient than the plain silicon kind. SiC power semiconductors also allow the coil and capacitor to be reduced in size.

Through the use of SiC components, Toyota aims to improve hybrid fuel efficiency by 10% and reduce PCU size by 80%.

This year, the company will begin on-road testing of SiC power semiconductors in Japan, using a Camry hybrid prototype and a fuel cell bus.

In the Camry hybrid prototype, Toyota is installing SiC transistors and diodes in the PCU’s internal voltage

Image courtesy of Toyota

Toyota tests silicon carbide power semiconductors

step-up converter and the inverter that controls the motor.

The bus, which is currently in commercial operation in Toyota City, features SiC diodes in its fuel cell voltage step-up converter, which is used to control the voltage of electricity from the fuel cell stack.

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THE TECH

CURRENTevents

UQM patents motor using non-rare earth magnets

Ioxus has launched its iMOD X-Series, a family of 22 ultracapacitor modules that are designed to simplify system design and installation for end users by offering a wide array of possible mounting configurations.

The new modules use off-the-shelf T-slots to mount from any side in any configuration. They feature internally integrated wire management and integrated heat sinks. Thermally conductive, electrically isolating material is used for mechanical and electrical purposes. All modules have front-facing terminals.

“The iMOD X-Series is very easy to install,” said Chad Hall, VP of Product Management. “It is easy to go under the hood with the Titan cell. We use thermally conductive, electrically isolated material to get the heat out of the cells very efficiently. The finned housing helps.”

Three different ultracap cells are available: 1200 F, 2000 F and 3000 F. The modules build off of a six-cell configuration (2×3, so no cell is thermally isolated); e.g., six cells for 16 V, 12 cells for 32 V, etc.

“The modules are chemistry-agnostic,” says Chad Hall. “If we come out with a new technology, a higher energy technology, we can put that in there and maintain the exact footprint.

Image courtesy of UQM

Image courtesy of Ioxus

Ioxus introduces module automotive ultracaps

Colorado-based UQM Technologies has earned a patent for a new EV motor design that uses nonrare earth magnets. The patent covers the unique magnet geometry and the method of manufacturing the motor. Most current EVs use permanent magnet motors that include rare earth metals, which offer strong and constant magnetic fields.

Rare earth elements, despite their name, are relatively plentiful in Earth’s crust - however, they are not often found concentrated as rare earth minerals in economically exploitable ore deposits. So, obtaining rare earths can be expensive and environmentally harmful.

UQM’s new design provides a similar level of performance to its current design, and once development is completed will allow UQM the flexibility to choose between the two systems, depending on future magnet costs.

“The patented technology that we’ve developed provides a viable option to existing rare earth motor technology, limiting exposure for us and our customers to the price and political volatilities of rare earth magnets,” said UQM CEO Eric R. Ridenour. “We are now in the prototype stage and the first samples are meeting our objectives, providing us with the validation to move into the next phase of development.”

Implementation of this technology is funded by a $4-million DOE grant.

JAN/FEB 2015

13

CURRENTevents

Repurposing used EV batteries as stationary storage is an elegant solution to several problems. Once a Li-ion battery has served for several years in a vehicle, it may not retain its youthful strength, but it still has plenty of storage capacity for applications, such as stabilizing the power grid and/or storing the intermittent power from renewable sources.

BMW, Bosch and European utility Vattenfall have joined together to launch the Second Life Batteries Alliance, which aims to offer used battery packs from BMW’s Active E test fleet and its new i3 and i8 a productive retirement.

The first step is building a 2 MWh storage system in Hamburg, Germany, which will be used to balance out short-term fluctuations in the power grid. Operated by Vattenfall, the facility contains some 100 BMW batteries, and uses a battery management algorithm devised by Bosch to maximize battery life. The entire system is compact enough to fit in a small building, and provides enough energy to supply 30 four-person households with power for seven days.

The partners expect it to be operational by the end of 2015.

“The project is important because it combines two strategically significant goals,” says Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner. “In electromobility, we see a future mass market accompanied by many new business models and solutions. Stationary energy storage systems that enable people to continue making good use of used batteries are part of this. Such decentralized storage systems allow us to make a major contribution to a secure power supply.”

14

Images courtesy of BOSCH (Bottom), BMW (Top)

Bosch and BMW establish retirement plan for EV batteries

THE TECH

Driven by the triple trends of vehicle electrification, automation and connectivity, the automotive semiconductor market had a splendid 2014, and is on track for more growth, according to a new report from research firm IHS. Automakers built more cars and used more semiconductors in 2014, bringing the market to $29 billion, a 10% annual increase.

IHS reports that the fastest growing segments for automotive semiconductors are hybrid vehicles, telematics, connectivity and driver assistance systems - revenue in these applications is forecast to see annual growth of 18-20% through 2018.

Tightening emissions regulations are leading to increased use of semiconductors in powertrain applications in regions around the world. Key semiconductor applications in electrified vehicles include motor inverters, DC/ DC converters, battery management systems and plug-in chargers.

“The new concepts in emissions mitigation in the

Image courtesy of Infineon

Automotive semiconductor market up 10% to $29 billion

engine and in exhaust after-treatment systems require advanced sensors for their operation,” said IHS Analyst Ahad Buksh. “For example, a hybrid electric vehicle demands ten times more semiconductor content in powertrain.”

It was an especially good year for Infineon, which enjoyed double-digit revenue growth. Electrification has helped its power management solutions, including microcomponent ICs. Infineon has now taken the lead spot from Renesas, which led the market for many years.

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THE TECH

Image courtesy of Boston Power

Boston Power to expand Chinese battery plants

Battery manufacturer Boston Power has secured $290 million in local government support for the expansion of its two facilities in China. The company’s Liyang facility will increase its manufacturing capacity fivefold by 2016. Its Tianjin facility is expected to reach 8 GWh in manufacturing capacity by 2018.

Boston Power expects China’s EV market to be worth $35 billion by 2020, with demand for lithiumion batteries hitting 100 GWh. “China is the largest and fastest growing EV market in the world and leads in the manufacturing of EVs and e-buses,” said Boston Power Chairman Sonny Wu. “Our analysis shows that this market will experience significant battery supply constraints over the next 3-5 years, which we aim to address.

We will use this support to ease a backlog of secured contract orders for our range of more than 30 EV battery designs used by leading Chinese automakers.

“Tianjin has been on the cusp of China’s drive for EV adoption, and we’re constantly embracing a growing variety of EV models into our city and into our grid,” said Tianjin government official Xiangyu Ni. “We are specifically supporting local and foreign companies, such as Boston Power, whose innovations are helping China, the world’s largest auto market, to meet its aggressive demand for longrange EVs.”

A team from the University of Waterloo in Canada and BASF has developed a way to stabilize cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries, significantly improving performance and cycle life.

Li-S batteries offer high theoretical energy density and low cost, due to the high natural abundance of sulfur. However, the insulating nature of sulfur and lithium sulfides requires the addition of conductive additives, which lowers the active sulfur mass fraction.

Sulfur also tends to dissolve into the electrolyte solution as the battery discharges. Earlier research found that metallic titanium oxide could stabilize the sulfur, but in a new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, Professor Linda Nazar and her research team show that nanosheets of manganese dioxide work even better.

The chemical reaction that stabilizes the sulfur is similar to a process discovered in 1845. “Very few researchers study or even teach sulfur chemistry anymore,” said Nazar. “It’s ironic we had to look so far back in the literature to understand something that may so radically change our future.”

The approach relies on a chemical process in which a host reacts with the initial lithium polysulfides formed on cycling to form surface-bound intermediates. These in turn function as a redox shuttle to catenate and bind the higher polysulfides, and convert them on reduction to insoluble lithium sulfide.

“Over decades, much effort has been expended to try to solve these problems by trapping the polysulfides within the cathode structure,” said lead author Xiao Liang. “Herein, we present a quite different chemical approach to polysulfide retention in the sulfur cathode, which relies on mediating polysulfide redox through insoluble thiosulfate species in a two-step process.”

JAN/FEB 2015

17

Image courtesy of faria!/Flickr

New process stabilizes Li-S battery cathode

CURRENTevents

A group of eleven German partners, including the Fraunhofer Institute, is developing an integrated axle module for commercial vehicles that promises high performance and reduced production costs. ESKAM, which stands for Electric Scalable Axle Module, includes a motor, gearbox and power electronics in a single compact housing.

Advantages of the axle module include high power density and high torque, which means fast acceleration. The ESKAM motor achieves speeds up to 20,000 rpm. “When we started on the project three years ago, we were the only ones who could obtain such high speeds,” recalls Project Manager Dr. Hans Bräunlich “Thanks to the innovative concept, there is great flexibility when manufacturing the modules - for small quantities and large batches alike,” says Bräunlich, adding that production costs could be reduced by up to 20%.

For example, the gearbox shafts are manufactured using a method called spin extrusion. “To help visualize the process, think of pottery,” explains Bräunlich. “The material is extruded during the shaping process, and pressed outward in a longitudinal direction. This allows us to use virtually all the material, cutting material costs by approximately 30% and reducing the overall weight of components.” The gears are made using a special forming process called gear-rolling, which does not produce any metal chips, and loses almost no material.

The consortium is now putting the individual parts together to make a demonstrator. They want to fit the axle module into a real car for testing by the end of 2015.

18

Image courtesy of Fraunhofer IWU

Scalable axle module promises cost savings

Metal-air battery technology is considered a promising candidate for “beyond Liion” next-generation batteries. Aluminum-air batteries have a theoretical specific energy of up to 8.1 kWh/kg, second only to lithium-air batteries (13.0 kWh/kg).

Fuji Pigment says it has developed a new type of aluminum-air battery that can be recharged by refilling with salt or fresh water, and that it plans to commercialize the product by spring 2015. Dr. Ryohei Mori developed the technology, and described it in a paper in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

One problem with aluminum-air technology is parasitic hydrogen evolution caused by anode corrosion during discharge. To address this, Dr. Mori modified the battery structure by placing ceramic and carbonaceous materials between aqueous electrolyte and electrodes as an internal layer. This suppresses anode corrosion and by-product accumulation, resulting in longer battery life.

“In an earlier work, we demonstrated the use of ceramic aluminum ion conductors in preventing anodic corrosion while maintaining aluminum ion conductivity,” writes Dr. Mori. “We used Al2(WO4)3 as an aluminum ion conductor for both the anode and the air cathode. An aluminum-air battery with a rechargeable battery was fabricated, and its properties were stable for one month. We named this cell an ALFA cell.”

“During this study, we noticed that Al2(WO4)3 had an intrinsic electrical conductivity of nearly 4 × 10−6 S cm−1 at 600° C; however, its conductivity was not high at room temperature. We found that the liquid electrolyte had penetrated the solid electrolyte region (the space between the ceramic particles), reaching the electrode. It was thus considered possible to fabricate a rechargeable aluminum-air battery with an insulating material, such as aluminum oxide, in order to replace the solid electrolyte.

Image courtesy of Fuji Pigment

Fuji Pigment develops new type of aluminum-air battery

THE TECH

Image courtesy of SolidEnergy

SolidEnergy aims to double EV battery range by 2017 SolidEnergy, an MIT spin-out company commercializing solid electrolyte technology, plans to release a 20 Ah EV battery in 2017, which it says will offer more than two times the range of current Li-ion batteries.

The core of SolidEnergy’s technology is a Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) electrolyte, which enables the use of an ultra-thin lithium metal anode. According to the company, this improves cell-level energy density by 50% compared to graphite anodes and 30% compared to silicon-composite anodes.

In 2014, the company announced a prototype 2 Ah pouch cell with a volumetric energy density of more than 1,200 Wh/L. The prototype included a novel electrolyte that combines ionic liquid and liquid polymer, as well as a solid-polymer-coated lithium anode. The solid polymer coating includes dendrite-suppressing additives to prevent dendrite growth.

As SolidEnergy founder Dr. Qichao Hu and his colleagues at MIT noted in a 2011 paper in the Journal of

Power Sources: “The use of conventional lithiumion batteries in high-temperature applications (>50° C) is currently inhibited by the high reactivity and volatility of liquid electrolytes. Solvent-free, solid-state polymer electrolytes allow for safe and stable operation of lithium-ion batteries, even at elevated temperatures. Recent advances in polymer synthesis have led to the development of novel materials that exhibit solid-like mechanical behavior while providing the ionic conductivities approaching that of liquid electrolytes.”

SolidEnergy is collaborating with A123 Venture Technologies, a Massachusetts-based technology incubator.

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Integrating

THE FUTURE Interplex, the complex assemblies expert, on power electronics, the automotive industry and the continuous drive for smarter design

P

By Michael Kent

ower modules containing high-power insulatedgate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are at the core of most modern inverters. These modules are the electronic muscle of the system. They perform all the switching, and they generate all the heat. But built around the muscle are subassemblies of components - control boards, current sensors, capacitor banks, busbars, cooling circuits - which are combined to make a fully functional inverter. Together, they are often referred to as an inverter assembly, or, in some cases, a powerstack.

If you dig under the hood of some early hybrid vehicles, you will find a big power module at the center, surrounded by discretely packaged subassemblies, all of which are tied or connected together by ribbon cables, harnesses, fasteners and power bussing systems.

Since the development of those early hybrids, the technology has advanced and engineers have learned

20

The newest trend is to take the power module and all the supporting subassemblies and design them to be integrated together as an overall package.

THE TECH

Image courtesy of Interplex

The efficiency killer in an inverter assembly is the inductance generated throughout subassembly packaging.

to package the subassemblies in smarter, more efficient ways. “The first step was to take the control board and stack it right on top of the power module,” Joe Lynch, Director of Advanced Applications Engineering at Interplex, told Charged.

As products cycled through the next decade of design iterations, the inverter evolved into one tightly packaged consolidated unit. “Now, the newest trend is to take the power module and all the supporting subassemblies and design them to be integrated together as an overall package, reducing the size of the complete inverter system,” said Lynch.

These smaller integrated inverter assemblies decrease material costs, improve the assembly process and result in shorter current paths between subassemblies, thereby greatly improving overall performance and increasing efficiency.

As new CAFE standards drive the market towards more cost-effective hybrid and alternative powertrain vehicles, the pressure to improve inverter system efficiency has intensified. “Efficiency and cost are at the heart of upgrading these inverter systems,” Lynch said. “Finding a way to reduce overall inductance and size and improve

manufacturing methods for a packaged inverter system becomes critical.”

As the market continues to focus on improving the active devices - IGBTs, MOSFETS, SiC- and GaN-based switch devices - much of the efficiency gains at the chip levels could be lost if the overall packaging and interconnection is not addressed. “The efficiency killer in an inverter assembly is the inductance generated throughout subassembly packaging,” Lynch explained. “Reducing inductance can be achieved through shorter current paths, larger and less conductors, and smaller overall size and proximity of components in the assembly. This is especially important with current running through parallel buses. Only by addressing the inverter assembly - both the active and the passive components - as one interconnecting package with overall design consolidation, can maximum efficiency be realized.”

Driving better design Although significant progress has been made in inverter packaging technology, there is still room for improvement. “If you look at most consolidated inverter assemblies, termed by some as ‘powerstacks,’ you see a lot of nuts, bolts, screws and soldered connections,” Lynch says.

“Ideally, inverters will have less of those type connections in the future, and systems will be designed that are more integrated and permanently plug together as an assembly.”

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Images courtesy of Interplex

A lot of companies use these high-force pluggable interconnects in power modules...

...but they’re not using them to create the whole power module system

Interplex’s work in the power module industry has primarily focused on supplying lead frames, press-fit solderless interconnects and integrated packaging to the module makers. For power modules, the general industry standard for interconnection and assembly remains one of a soldered connection. However, finding an alternative to soldered connections has been a focus of the power module industry for many years, mainly because of the assembly needs of the power module customer. Inherent in a power module design is its ability to dissipate heat, and the introduction of heat necessary to solder to control boards during assembly can be excessive, and cause damage to the assemblies. Solderless, high-force pluggable connections - like Interplex’s press-fit technology - have been gaining a lot of ground recently due to their ability to be assembled without the introduction of heat.

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There is another advantage of solderless press-fit technology that benefits the rest of the inverter’s subassemblies: it eliminates cumbersome connection systems, such as harnesses, bolting, welding and other costly and inefficient connections. “A lot of companies use these high-force pluggable interconnects in power modules,” explains Lynch, “but they’re not using them to create the whole power module system, which includes the busbars, capacitors, current sensors, etc. A lot of these subsystems are still put together with, basically, a nut-and-bolt combination.”

Bolting, welding and harness connections are assembly-process intensive, and result in larger assemblies with longer current paths and higher overall inductance. Interplex believes the full integration of pluggable press-fit technology could significantly reduce the bill-of-material costs, decrease assembly complexity and shrink the overall physical size of the power assembly.

“Wide adoption of press-fit technology requires a

THE TECH Conductivity is related to three key considerations when using pressfit technology: size, material selection and thermal dissipation. have tradeoffs, and it is important to match the performance characteristics to a particular application. Test data availability is the ultimate verification.

For power connections in robust and A simulation using data for a copper press-fit terminal that is SMT soldered harsh environments, Interplex says to a DBC. Three copper alloys were compared: 15% IACS (C51000), 40% that engineers often prefer high-force IACS (C19010) and 80% IACS (C18080). There is clearly a large difference solderless connections like press-fit in temperature rise from the 15% IACS to the 40% IACS material, but hardly any difference between the 40% and 80% IACS. Since the 80% because of their ability to meet vibraIACS material has a limited supply chain, limited availability and is more tion and temperature profiles beyond expensive, the engineering decision is to choose the 40% IACS, because 150° C. These press-fit type connections it will not degrade performance. are repeatable, make direct contact with the printed circuit board (PCB), and are available in various alloy options that support high current.

The ability of the assembly to dissipate heat, particularly in a power assembly, plays one of Wide adoption of press-fit the most important roles in contributing to a connection’s technology requires a significant current-carrying capacity. It was once thought that solderless connection technologies carried less current than amount of data to prove it can a soldered joint, but the new generation of high-normalconduct power and do it well. force press-fit connections allow direct contact with the plated-through holes of a PCB, allowing current and heat significant amount of data to prove it can conduct power to pass without the medium of solder in between. and do it well,” said Lynch. “Can it handle vibrations, heat Conductivity is related to three key considerations and thermal cycles? Our testing over the years shows that when using press-fit technology: size, material selection it can. Now, it’s a question of engineering new designs for and thermal dissipation. To highlight some of the design high-force, resilient, pluggable interconnects to take it to options available to engineers, Interplex uses a simulation the next level of efficiency.”

(Figure 1) of a typical copper flexible press-fit terminal with three possible alloys of varying thermal conductivConductivity ity. Temperature gradients reveal the most cost-effective Press-fit designs come in many formats, such as webs, alloy for the power requirements, and the company says formed, and split beam “eye-of-the-needle” (EON). All that physical tests were used to verify the results.

Figure 1

JAN/FEB 2015

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Images courtesy of Interplex

0.80 mm Press-Fit In Copper Busbar 150 °C Heat Exposure Contact Normal Force (g)

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000

0

00

10

00

20

00

30

00

40

150 °C Heat Exposure Duration (hrs)

Figure 2

Press-fit connection test rig includes busbars and holes of a variety of sizes and tin plating.

This test was set up using a 0.80 mm press-fit gauge part with 4 press-fit eyes per coupon and a 1.6 mm thick busbar. It was exposed to 150° C for 6 months to allow for accelerated creep to occur.

Mechanical fortitude The vibration, maximum acceleration and thermal environments of the automotive industry have driven advancements in press-fit interconnects, with a focus on increasing the normal force and maintaining resiliency.

The latest developments of EON press-fits offer resiliency with high normal force and stable contact resistance typically under 0.5 mΩ for the product life. In fact, Interplex claims that, following tests under an automotive vibration profile and a temperature range of -40 to 150° C, the average contact resistance remained well below 0.2 mΩ. These characteristics make high-force contacts very capable of power applications.

Copper compatible?

The copper bus systems in power assemblies enable high current transmission with low losses and a good level of heat transfer. However, connecting to the busbar systems

24

Figure 3

Thermal aging and busbar connection contact force.

Connecting to the busbar systems has, until recently, been a difficult process. has, until recently, been a difficult process. According to Interplex, there has been a slow adoption of press-fit connections used directly with copper busbars, mainly because of a misconception that, over time at high temperatures, the copper creep (or its tendency to move slowly and deform permanently) will weaken the interconnect and degrade overall performance.

To combat this perception, Interplex has been conducting accelerated creep testing and publishing the results.

In a series of tests, multiple holes were created in copper busbars that ranged from just above to just below the standard tolerance window for the press-fit part (Figure 2). Normal forces of the press-fit test coupon were evaluated before and after prolonged temperature soaks, and the interconnects maintained resiliency throughout the cycle. Final normal forces were well within an acceptable range for a well-functioning power connection (Figure 3).

THE TECH Even though existing test results verify that the functionality of the high-force press-fit connection is well maintained through the creep of the copper busbar, Interplex continues to define additional test variations for more aggressive environments.

The results suggest that high-force and high-power solderless interconnects can be realized for many types of busbar connections, opening the design window for more solderless designs to be developed with the target of carrying even more current.

In-house power moves As the worldwide auto industry continues its trend towards electrification, more and more automakers are vertically integrating their power electronics development.

Power Module manufacturers have been hesitant to offer completely packaged inverter systems, as OEMs are looking for specialized units to fit the design of their future car lines. As a result, OEMs have been hiring engineers to build up their electric motor and inverter know-how in an attempt to drive down costs and increase efficiencies.

However, when it comes to the fully-integrated inverter

As the worldwide auto industry continues its trend towards electrification, more and more automakers are vertically integrating their power electronics development. assembly, expertise in packaging and connector engineering is needed as well.

“The OEMs are moving towards designing their own power modules from the ground up, as an integrated complete powertrain,” Lynch explained. “In the end, they want to control and build the power circuits themselves and buy the packaging parts for assembly in their own factories.”

However, while the OEMs are climbing up the learning curve, they continue to rely heavily on suppliers for their power electronics and packaging expertise. For Interplex, that expertise is leading to a solderless, more integrated design of the future.

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Screw it in and drive Siemens saves weight and space with integrated motor and inverter

By Joey Stetter

mong the companies pushing the boundaries of packaging efficiency is the German engineering colossus Siemens. The company has developed an integrated motor and inverter contained in a single housing, the Siemens Sivetec MSA 3300. The new drive unit reduces weight, frees up six to seven liters of additional space, lowers costs, and requires fewer assembly steps during vehicle production.

They key goals in any automotive project are to achieve the right performance, high quality and low prices in something that can be easily integrated into new cars. “We wanted a traction drive that was easy to integrate, especially on the rear axle of the car,” Dr. Karsten Michels, Head of Development at Siemens eCar Powertrain Systems, told Charged.

The idea is to target an existing platform, such as a passenger car with a combustion engine, that an OEM is interested in making into a hybrid. A compact motor and inverter assembly could easily be added to the rear axle without many additional parts.

“We have to make it easy for the OEM,” said Dr. Michels. “That’s the first big advantage of combining the motor and the inverter. To put it simply, screw it in and drive. Today, the cabling is a nightmare for OEMs, especially the thick cables needed for a traction motor.”

Combining the motor and inverter completely eliminates the cables between the two, which is an advantage for both space and price. “Copper is expensive stuff,” said Dr. Michels. “Also, transferring high currents is not that easy and can bring up some issues in the field. If you simply do not have these cables between the inverter and motor, it completely eliminates the concern for an OEM. The space you need is smaller and the cost is lower. These are key advantages.”

A

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THE TECH

Image courtesy of Siemens

We wanted a traction drive that was easy to integrate, especially on the rear axle of the car.

You can do this with a very sophisticated design of the cooling system.

The savings At this point of the development process, precisely defining the savings in weight and cost of such a system is difficult, because it depends on a lot of factors. There are weight savings gained from the reduction in housing and die-cast material, which Dr. Michels says are “a few kilograms, but not the major part of the weight efficiency.”

Again, he highlights elimination of “the cables that are very heavy because it’s thick copper, many kilograms, and you get completely rid of it.” Overall, he estimates weight savings to be around 10-15%.

“It’s hard to talk specifically about costs, as you can imagine,” said Dr. Michels. “Cost savings come from the reduction in materials and parts, but the main cost advantage lies in the car integration and the cables.”

Creative cooling One of the biggest challenges that Siemens engineers faced was the heat generated by the electric motor. At high temperatures, the output of the IGBT modules has to be limited. For this reason, inverters in automotive applications often have their own dedicated liquid cooling systems. So, a key feature of the integrated drive unit was the creation of a special cooling system and, according to Dr. Michels, it’s the part of the project that contains the company’s most innovative IP. “The motor can be more than 160° C, and in an inverter you have electronic parts which will be damaged at 120° C,” explained Dr. Michels. “So, you have to isolate the inverter from the motor in some way. You can do this with a very sophisticated design of the cooling system.”

Siemens designed the cooling channels so that the coolest liquid first flows around thermally sensitive components, such as the IGBT modules and the intermediate circuit capacitor, after which it is led into the motor’s cooling jacket. The liquid flow system is designed so that a kind of water screen is created between the inverter electronics and the motor, thermally isolating the two units from one another.

“This is where the real intellectual property is,” said Dr. Michels. “We did a lot of design work in this area, a lot of simulations and calculations of temperatures. In the end, we have more homogeneous cooling in this inverter than we’ve seen in distributed parts. Very good results.”

JAN/FEB 2015

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THE TECH SKiN in the game In 2013, Siemens signed a cooperation agreement with Semikron to get access to power electronic systems specifically for the hybrid and electric vehicle market, based on the Semikron SKiN technology, which does not require conventional soldered joints or wire bonds.

Semikron claims that by replacing wire bonding with SKiN flex layers, some major increases in performance can be achieved, including an increase of about 25% in phase current in the power module, and excellent thermal and electrical properties that increase the module lifetime up to tenfold. Also, if the Direct Copper Bonded substrate is sintered directly onto the heat sink, Semikron says that the thermal resistance to the heat sink is reduced drastically, which decreases the thermal resistance between the semiconductor chip and coolant by up to 30%, enabling even more power increases, or a reduction in volume of up to 35%.

The advantages of SKiN technology can also be realized in a traditional system without an integrated motor and

inverter, and Dr. Michels says that by the middle of this year we will begin to see the first cars on the street with SKiN-powered modules. But the advantages are particularly well-suited for an integrated approach where volume and heat generation are tightly constrained.

Commercialization Siemens’ announcement of the Sivetec MSA 3300 integrated motor-inverter marks the end of the technology development and the beginning of application development for specific OEM projects.

“We’ve completed testing with internal prototypes that had very good results. And feedback from the OEMs has been great,” said Dr. Michels. “This is this mostly geared towards passenger cars, because of their space limitations.

We are now in a good position to design applications specifically for the spaces where OEMs need an integrated solution, otherwise the space requirements would not be fulfilled.”

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Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Flickr

The Curious Case of Ionic Liquids

THE TECH

Ionic liquid in vials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Boulder Ionics/CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals Iolyte electrolytes may open the door for higher-voltage batteries and ultracaps.

By Markkus Rovito hen you think of liquids under the brand name Coors, you think of the Silver Bullet, the Banquet Beer. You certainly don’t think of high technology, unless you’re really easily impressed by cold-activated cans. However, not everyone knows that there’s another huge conglomerate under the Coors name besides the $5 billion sudsmaker that was founded in 1873. The Coors family also lays claim to CoorsTek, Inc., a specialist in technical ceramics and other industrial products with 44 locations and more than $1 billion in annual sales that dates back to 1910.

Last October, CoorsTek acquired Boulder Ionics, a 2011 start-up that made the Cleantech Group’s 2014 Global Cleantech Ones to Watch list. Boulder Ionics’ novel lithium salts, ionic liquid electrolytes and other electrolytes made for energy storage devices had caught many others’ eyes as well. The company’s early and Series A funding came from the US Air Force and Navy, the National Science Foundation, Pangaea Ventures, CoorsTek’s investment branch and others. By the time Boulder started raising Series B capital, CoorsTek stepped in a full acquisition proposal.

“They said, ‘we want to commercialize your products, and we know about large-scale manufacturing,’” said Dr. Jerry L. Martin, co-founder and CEO of Boulder Ionics. “They have facilities all over the world and thousands of employees in the manufacturing space. We’re now part of an organization with global reach, a hundred years of manufacturing experience and the ability to rapidly move things from R&D into large-scale production.”

With the acquisition, Martin will become President of the Boulder Ionics unit within the new CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals unit. Martin told us the Boulder Ionics name will probably dissolve in the next year. However, that won’t change what the company has become most known for - its ionic liquid electrolytes, branded as Iolytes, which promise improved safety, better performance at extreme temperatures, more power and longer life for the next-generation batteries and ultracapacitors that use them.

W

JAN/FEB 2015

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Yet one can make a laundry list of possible advantages from Iolytes: high conductivity, low vapor pressure, nonflammability. Also, some ionic liquids are stable over very wide temperature ranges, especially very high temperatures - even above 250˚ C. Others have a melting point as low as -50˚ C. “For example, you can dissolve sodium chloride (table salt) in water, and Table salt, left, and ionic liquid ,right, at room temperature. you’ll have water molecules, sodium ions and chlorine ions, but you have neutral water molecules,” Martin said.

A slow flow “In a molten salt, everything is an ion. There are no neuEvery new battery materials technology seems to make tral molecules, and that leads to a set of unique properthe above claims, so what is it about ionic liquid electroties, some quite interesting for batteries. Think about it: lytes that makes them so special? For starters, an ionic There’s nothing but ions in the mixture, so they can be liquid is a salt that’s molten at room temperature, which highly conductive. Also, if you try to pull one of these gives it some special properties in batteries. ions out of the liquid, you have tremendous electrostatic “If that doesn’t make your head hurt, you weren’t lisforces pulling it back, so the net result of that is the vapor tening in chemistry class,” Martin said, “because table salt pressure of ionic liquids is essentially zero. They don’t melts at 800˚ C. The idea of a salt that’s a molten liquid at boil; they don’t evaporate. You put a cup of ionic liquid room temperature is really crazy. This class of materials on your desk, and come back 50 years later, it’s still going is relatively new; it was really developed in the mid-90s, to be liquid. That lack of vapor pressure means that in mainly by some folks working at the Air Force. But once general, they’re not flammable, because you can’t develop you figure out the secret to making low-temperature a flammable concentration that would burn above the molten salts, there’s thousands and thousands of varieties surface.” to make.”

Another great trait for many ionic liquids is greater With that many varieties, Martin cautions strongly electrochemical stability than the carbonate-based against generalizing about ionic liquids; some will have electrolytes common in current Li-ion batteries. With this or that property and some will have the other, but next-generation batteries often employing higher-voltage few will have them all. “It’s like generalizing about metcathodes, they could exceed the safe limit of current als,” he said. “Lead and platinum are very different.” electrolytes, which can lead to fires that can destroy life,

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Image courtesy of Zgonnik/Wikipedia

If that doesn’t make your head hurt, you weren’t listening in chemistry class...The idea of a salt that’s a molten liquid at room temperature is really crazy.

THE TECH property and the momentum of electrification.

“The current generation of electrolytes is based on highly flammable solvents that are marginally stable at voltages above about 4.2/4.3 V, which is where we operate our batteries today.” Some of Boulder’s ionic liquids can be stable at an absolute limit around 5.5 V, and even a lower practical limit should be plenty for next-generation batteries, which Martin said are looking at cathodes that operate between 4.6-5 V. “People are trying all sorts of new things to replace components in the electrolyte with more stable materials,” Martin said. “One of those candidates is ionic liquids. If they let you raise the voltage, your energy is proportional to voltage; that’s why people are pursuing higher-voltage cathodes. But traditionally ionic liquids have been too expensive, not available in the required purity, and not available in industrial quantities.”

If they let you raise the voltage, your energy is proportional to voltage; that’s why people are pursuing higher-voltage cathodes.

enormous oven to make thousands of cookies at a time, or come up with a system that made one cookie at a time at only a few seconds each.

“That’s really our approach,” he said. “Rather than building one big reactor that takes a long time to make these materials, we have a very small reactor that operates extremely fast and produces a large quantity of material.

That allows us to build a modular system with modules capable of producing tens of tons of material per year, The three Ps and they are the size of a refrigerator.”

Martin co-founded Boulder Ionics to work on the The company can purchase raw materials and use its “three Ps” of ionic liquids: price, purity and production. system to put them through a series of chemical reacAll organic electrolytes need to be extremely pure. tions for producing, purifying, drying and then packing “In some cases, you might have to limit chlorine to 10 the material straight into shipping vessels. “People come ppm,” Martin said. “But most common synthesis techin expecting to see something like a refinery, and instead niques start with a chloride salt [laughs]. So you start they see something that looks like racks of refrigeratorwith something that’s maybe 50% or 500,000 ppm, and size modules all operating under computer control on a you have to get that to 10 ppm. So over the past two decontinuous basis,” Martin said. cades, companies have figured out ways to do that on an While Boulder Ionics is not quite in full-scale producindustrial scale, but those techniques are not well develtion of its Iolytes yet, the company has several customoped for ionic liquids. A lot of our intellectual property ers that are field-testing products using their materials.

- both patents and trade secrets - are on achieving those These early customers have to understand that the other high purity levels cost-effectively and at scale.”

P, price, will at first be higher for Boulder Ionics products While many companies are using a batch production than for the materials they are replacing. However, Marprocess, Boulder Ionics gets more cost-effective results tin is confident that his ionic liquids will reduce the cost with a continuous production process. “We’re using of the final installed battery pack. what’s called micro-channel reactors and other process“We see our materials as enabling battery packs to be intensification techniques to conduct these reactions very smaller, lighter and less expensive,” he said. “If our matefast - in some cases, 100 rials let the battery operate times faster than typical at higher temperatures, practices. We can produce it could be that more a very large amount of manufacturers could adopt A lot of our intellectual property material from a relatively less expensive air coolsmall system.” ing. Those are the kinds - both patents and trade secrets Martin drew an analogy of things that really affect are on achieving those high purity of baking 10,000 cookies. the cost: reducing the You could either use an levels cost-effectively and at scale. complexity of the cool-

JAN/FEB 2015

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ing system, reducing the need to heat the battery on very cold days.”

Martin expects to have industrial-scale production underway in late 2015 or early 2016. The company already has the production capabilities built for its Iolytes, and is building out production for its other breakthrough product, the Lithium FSI (fluorosulfonylimide) salt, aka LiFSI. FSI: Boulder CoorsTek Specialty Chemicals/Boulder Ionics has a hand in making all three electrolyte components: solvents, salts and additives. Its Iolytes can be either the solvent or the salt, depending on the end product. The company also produces other novel lithium salts, the marquee one being Lithium FSI. Boulder positions LiFSI as a good substitute for lithium PF6 (hexafluorophosphate).

“Today, 90% of Li-ion batteries use the LiPF6 salt,” Martin said. “LiPF6 is one of those things that is not particularly good at anything, but it’s not particularly bad at anything. It’s the compromise that everybody has settled on, but it has some real limitations. One of those is, it isn’t very stable in the presence of water or at high temperatures. So one of the biggest causes of degradation to Li-ion batteries at elevated temperatures is the break-

34

down of the lithium salt. It goes through a series of reactions, and it eventually forms hydrofluoric acid, which of course is very corrosive.”

In LiFSI, Martin thinks he has a leading candidate for the lithium salt that will be non-toxic, cost-effective and more stable than LiPF6, something researchers have sought for decades. He says it’s more conductive and more stable than LiPF6, giving batteries longer lives at wider temperature ranges. What’s also nice is that manufacturers can pretty easily swap out LiPF6 for LiFSI either in whole or in part.

“You obviously have to verify that it’s going to be compatible with all the other materials in your battery,” Martin said, “but in general our customers have not encountered difficulties in replacing it. And it doesn’t have to be a wholesale replacement; you could mix some of the salt you’re using now with Lithium FSI if you wanted to test the waters and still get some of the benefit. The challenges with LiFSI are the same: price, purity and production. It’s difficult to make very pure right now: it’s extraordinarily expensive, and there are no large-scale manufacturers anywhere in the world. However, some large battery companies are very seriously considering adopting it. Because of that, there’s a sort of global race on to figure out how

Images © CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine

Today, 90% of Li-ion batteries use the LiPF6 salt...[It's] not particularly good at anything, but it’s not particularly bad at anything. It’s the compromise that everybody has settled on, but it has some real limitations.

THE TECH

There’s a sort of global race on to figure out how to produce this material at a price and purity that meets market needs. to produce this material at a price and purity that meets market needs.”

Martin feels that the recent acquisition by CoorsTek Special Chemicals positions the company well to win that race, because it will help in building the large-scale production to go along with Boulder Ionics’ patents in LiFSI synthesis.

I see Iolytes When Boulder Ionics’ Iolytes go commercial, we could see them in consumer electronics, grid-scale energy stor-

age, satellites, and certainly electric vehicles. The question is whether there are chemistries or formats to which they’ll be more suited. Martin said the Iolytes are stable with all the battery chemistries being seriously considered for next-generation high-voltage cathode systems.

However, they do seem to be particularly appropriate for batteries using silicon anodes.

“Silicon can store much more lithium per unit volume than the carbon we use today,” Martin said, “but there’s always an interaction between the electrolyte and the anode that forms an SEI (solid electrolyte interface).

It forms in the first couple of cycles, and if it’s stable, it prevents further degradation of the electrolyte. Well, the SEI on silicon is very different from the SEI on carbon.

Right now, cycle life of those batteries is not good enough for automotive use. They can store a whole lot of energy, but then the battery degrades really fast. Recent work has shown that our materials form more stable SEI layers on silicon, allowing batteries with silicon anodes to last longer, in some cases by factors of two.”

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THE TECH Martin also thinks that Iolytes may show up in the market first within ultracapacitors and Li-ion capacitors.

Such capacitors are advancing at a much faster rate than batteries, Martin said, and they are essential to the startstop technology used in the micro-hybrids that are widespread in Europe and beginning to creep into the US on models such as the Mazda 6.

“Over the next five years I think the United States will reach where Europe is now - where about half of the cars have some sort of start-stop energy recovery,” Martin said. “It’s the low-hanging fruit to meet the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.”

The US armed forces backed Boulder Ionics early on, because the Air Force wanted to use ultracapacitors in satellites in low-Earth orbit, which undergo a charge/ discharge cycle every 90 minutes or so. That adds up to tens of thousands of cycles over their lifetime, which traditional batteries can’t handle. To get around that, they would greatly oversize the battery and then only discharge it by a small amount. However, ultracapacitors

For many years, electrolytes were sort of ignored because they were good enough. can easily achieve a life of 100,000 cycles, making them much more efficient for satellites. Martin then reiterated one of the core benefits of the Iolytes: they would allow the ultracapacitors to operate at higher voltages, making them competitive with batteries.

“For many years, electrolytes were sort of ignored because they were good enough,” Martin said. “Now as everyone has been pushing on the voltage and asking for more safety, the industry’s realized that better electrolytes are key to next-generation batteries and ultracaps. There’s been a resurgence in development. It’s definitely an exciting time for the electrolyte industry.”

CURRENTevents

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chevrolet revealed the all-new 2016 Volt, which features some improvements that are worth trumpeting.

The technical upgrades are significant. Electric range has been increased to 50 miles, putting the Volt far ahead of other PHEVs (and lending weight to GM’s claim that it is actually a different class of vehicle - an EREV). Acceleration off the mark from 0-30 mph is said to be 19% faster.

The new two-motor drive unit is up to 12% more efficient, and 100 pounds lighter than before. Battery capacity has been increased to 18.4 kWh, even as the size has been reduced to 192 cells (from 288) and the weight has been reduced by 20 pounds. The new 1.5-liter gas engine is designed to use regular unleaded fuel, and offers estimated efficiency of 41 mpg, making the Volt a pretty economical ride even for those who never figure out how to plug it in.

Many improvements were based on customer suggestions. “According to independent surveyors, Volt owners are the most satisfied in the industry, and they were our compass for developing the next-generation model,” said Alan Batey, President of GM North America. “We believe our engineering prowess, combined with data from thousands of customers, allows us to deliver the most capable plug-in vehicle in the industry.”

A new bench seat design in the rear allows five-passenger seating, addressing an often-heard complaint. The exterior styling has been sexed up - the front end looks much the same, but the rear end is now much sleeker and

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Images courtesy of General Motors

Chevrolet unveils new and improved 2016 Volt

sportier. Gone is the Volt’s distinctive boxy stern.

There are many more improvements, including new regenerative braking functionality, more charging capabilities, and new safety features. Perhaps most important, GM says the new Volt delivers a better driving experience, which should win more converts to the electric way.

“The improvements in the efficiency and performance of the 2016 Volt are driven by what owners said they wanted in the next-generation model: more range, better fuel economy and stronger acceleration,” said Volt Chief Engineer Andrew Farah. “We’ve delivered all of that, while also making the Volt more refined and fun to drive.”

Pricing for the 2016 Volt has not yet been announced.

THE VEHICLES

Images courtesy of VIA Motors

VIA expects to sell 50,000 vehicles per year by 2018 VIA Motors expects to sell 50,000 of its plug-in pickups and vans per year by 2018, Chairman Bob Lutz told Bloomberg. For 2015, he said, the company would be happy to sell about 12,000 vehicles.

VIA will start selling the pickups to fleet customers in February, and to individuals by the end of the year, Lutz said. FedEx, PG&E, Duke Energy and Verizon have already placed orders. Sun Country Highway has agreed to buy 1,000 pickups and delivery vans, and will distribute them across Canada.

The plug-in trucks not only reduce fuel costs, but also provide electricity at remote locations, making them ideal for campers, catering companies, utilities and the military, said Lutz.

A crew-cab VIA pickup, with seating for up to six, costs about $65,000, and has an electric range of 40 miles.

Even at $1.80 per gallon for gasoline, a company can cut monthly fuel costs by about $300 with electric-only driving, Lutz said.

Customers who need mobile power don’t have to haul a generator on a trailer, because VIA pickups have an array of 120- and 240-volt electrical outlets. VIA also offers an optional solar panel, mounted on the pickup bed cover, for recharging the batteries.

“We’re not trying to be Tesla,” Lutz said, “but these vehicles get over 100 miles per gallon and have lots of other advantages. They basically act like mobile generators.”

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Image courtesy of Brammo

Polaris buys Brammo’s motorcycle business

Mandatory EV sounds delayed until 2018 For years, the automakers and government regulators have been talking about requiring EVs to make some sort of artificial noise when traveling at low speeds, for the safety of pedestrians.

The federal Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act was signed into law in 2011, but there is still no requirement for EVs to have sound generators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has drawn up a Proposed Rule for the sounds, which will only come into force three years after being finalized.

Now, responding to a request from automakers, who aren’t happy with some of the details of the Proposed Rule, NHTSA has agreed to push back the date for a final ruling to the end of this year, meaning that compliance will not be required until 2018.

Meanwhile, some EVs have pedestrian alert systems and some don’t. Some are driver-selectable, and some aren’t.

The National Federation of the Blind has led the effort to get uniform regulations in place. “The blind, like all pedestrians, must be able to travel to work, to school, to church, and to other places in our communities, and we must be able to hear vehicles in order to do so,” said Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the NFB, in 2011.

However, the blind are not the only people who may be in danger of being silently bumped off. According to NHTSA, studies have suggested that EVs and hybrids are twice as likely to hit a pedestrian as are legacy vehicles.

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Polaris Industries, one of the largest makers of offroad vehicles, has acquired the electric motorcycle business of Brammo, and will act as a lead investor in a recapitalization of Brammo that will enable the company to focus exclusively on the design and development of electric powertrains.

Polaris has been a strategic investor and partner with Brammo since 2011. The companies have collaborated on a number of projects in motorcycles, off-road and on-road vehicles. They will continue to market a variety of EVs using Brammo’s electric drivetrain technology, which it already supplies to a range of OEMs. Polaris will reboot manufacturing of Brammo’s line in the second half of 2015 at its Spirit Lake, Iowa facility, where it also makes Victory Motorcycles and Indian Motorcycles.

“Our excitement about Brammo’s industry-leading lithium-ion electric drivetrain technology has increased commensurate with their improvements in cost and performance,” said Scott Wine, Polaris Chairman and CEO. “Polaris and Brammo share a goal of adding the most advanced and highest capability electric solutions to Polaris’ portfolio of leading powersports products. Today’s announcement strengthens not only Polaris’ commitment to bringing our consumers lithium-ion electric solutions, but also this partnership’s ability to continue innovating and developing leading electric drivetrain technology.”

THE VEHICLES

Mitsubishi’s Outlander Plug-In Hybrid has sold well since going on sale in Europe and Japan two years ago, and there’s reason to believe that it could be a hit in the States as well. However, US buyers will have to wait for a plug-in crossover - the US launch has been delayed once again. Mitsubishi recently told Automotive News that the plug-in version of the Outlander won’t hit American dealerships until the second quarter of 2016.

By that time, it will have company. Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volvo are all planning to produce plug-in versions of their luxury SUVs, to say nothing of the Tesla Model X. Perhaps with an eye to the competition, Mitsubishi has introduced a couple more upscale trim levels. The GX5h and GX5hs (now available in the UK) offer such goodies as heated leather seats, adaptive cruise control, mood lighting and multiple USB charging ports.

The company expects the combination of luxury perks and low carbon footprint (read: lower taxes) to be a hit

Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV US launch delayed again

with business buyers. “The GX5h and GX5hs plug-in hybrid Outlanders offer a fantastic package of benefits for both companies and company car drivers - high specification, luxury feel, low running costs, strong environmental credentials,” said Clive Messenger, UK Head of Corporate Sales.

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BYD taking pre-orders for Tang plug-in SUV

Unlike some other automakers, Honda doesn’t seem to feel that hydrogen and battery-powered vehicles are mutually exclusive. At the Detroit auto show, Honda exhibited its FCV fuel cell vehicle, which will go on sale in the US in 2016, and also announced plans to produce a new EV and PHEV by 2018.

The Honda FCV Concept, first revealed in Japan in November, features a fuel cell stack that fits entirely under the hood, and is 33% smaller and offers 60% more power density compared to the outgoing Honda FCX Clarity. The hydrogen Honda seats five, and has a driving range over 300 miles and an anticipated refueling time of around 3 minutes.

Honda has paid some $13.8 million to FirstElement Fuel to build hydrogen refueling stations in California.

Few details were offered on the planned plug-ins, save that they will feature Honda Earth Dreams Technology powertrains.

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Photos courtesy of BYD

Images courtesy of American Honda Motor Co.

Honda shows FCV, plans new EV and PHEV models Chinese automaker BYD is poised to profit from two converging trends: the government’s support for new energy vehicles, and what the company calls China’s “insatiable appetite for SUVs.” BYD has begun taking pre-orders for the Tang, a plug-in SUV named for the most prosperous of Chinese dynasties.

The Tang is built on BYD’s secondgeneration DM (Dual-Mode) PHEV platform. Its 2.0-liter gas engine and front and rear 110 kW electric motors deliver total system output of 498 hp and 605 lb-ft of torque for the entry-level model (551 hp and 642 lb-ft for the performance model). Both models go from 0-60 in under 5 seconds. The 18.4 kWh Liiron phosphate battery pack yields an electric range of around 80 km (50 miles). The driver can switch between all-electric and hybrid modes.

The entry-level model goes for 300,000 RMB ($48,300) before EV incentives, and the performance model is priced at about twice that.

BYD has also announced two more PHEVs that will become available later in 2015: the Song midsize SUV and the Yuan compact SUV.

THE VEHICLES

The Federal Transit Administration recently distributed $55 million in grants to 10 transit agencies as part of a program to deploy US-made electric transit buses. More than half of that money will be going to South Carolina-based Proterra, the Greenville News reported.

Six transit agencies in five states will buy a total of 28 Proterra buses and seven charging stations nearly $30 million in new orders, and a “tremendous validation for the company,” as Proterra CEO Ryan Popple put it. The program involved “intense competition for a lot of different technologies, but cities that specified that they wanted to deploy Proterra’s technology did very, very well,” he said.

Popple said it was too soon to say whether the new orders would prompt additional hiring. “What we’re trying to figure out right now is how we slot in the orders,” he said.

Other companies benefitting from the awards include BAE Systems and New Flyer.

DARPA funds SilentHawk hybrid military motorcycle Image courtesy of Logos Technologies

Image courtesy of Proterra

Federal grants to pay for 28 Proterra electric buses

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded funding to Logos Technologies to continue development of the SilentHawk military motorcycle in partnership with California’s Alta Motors (formerly BRD).

In Phase I of the project, Logos and Alta tested Alta’s existing RedShift MX electric motocross bike in multiple terrains and riding conditions to understand the requirements for an off-road military motorcycle. In Phase II, the companies will build a prototype, combining the RedShift MX with Logos’s quiet, multi-fueled hybrid power system, which it developed for a separate unmanned aerial vehicle program.

When fully developed, SilentHawk would allow small military teams to move long distances quickly and stealthily across harsh enemy terrain, meeting DARPA’s expectations for high performance, efficiency and military utility.

“Quiet, all-wheel drive capability at extended range in a lightweight, rugged, single-track vehicle would support successful operations in extreme terrain conditions and contested environments,” said Wade Pulliam, Manager of Advanced Concepts for Logos. “A unique field-swappable power system concept will allow unprecedented customizability of the bike, while still meeting and exceeding the government’s challenging requirements. We also believe that the system resulting from this second phase of the program would have applicability to other ground vehicle systems beyond motorcycles.”

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Photo courtesy of Paul Sableman/Flickr

CURRENTevents

Tesla releases detailed range figures for Model S family Estimating the exact range of an EV can be complex, and it’s even more so when a model comes in several different variants. Tesla has released a detailed explanation of how range is calculated, and how various vehicle configuration choices affect it.

In a blog post titled Driving Range for the Model S Family, Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel explains how the different versions of Model S compare in terms of range. Model S is offered with two battery sizes, and opting for the P (Performance) package slightly decreases maximum range, whereas the D (Dual drive) option slightly increases it.

Model S buyers can also choose different wheel and tire options, and these have a substantial effect on maximum range.

The standard way to express vehicle range in the US is the EPA 5-cycle system, which takes account of various different driving conditions to give an approximation of the average range.

Variant 85D P85+, P85, 85 P85D 60

EPA 5-cycle Range2 [miles] 2701 265 2531 208

1 Values for 85D and P85D are pending final confirmation from the EPA and use new dual motor torque sleep control software available by the end of January 2015.

2 In the table above all vehicles, including the P85+, are using 19” tires.

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However, it is sometimes relevant to consider the constant speed cruising range (for example, if you’re taking a long trip on the highway), so figures are given for the different Model S versions at 65 mph and at 75 mph.

Variant 85D2 P85+, P85, 85 P85D2 60 1 2

65 mph Range1 [miles] 295 285 285 215

75 mph Range1 [miles] 249 242 240 183

All vehicles in the table above are using 19” tires.

Using new torque sleep control software.

In the post, Straubel also discussed Tesla’s innovative dual motor torque sleep control software, which allows the rear motor in the dual drive Model S to “sleep” when not in use, improving the range of dual motor vehicles by roughly 10%.

“Much like a modern computer that can actually sleep in between keystrokes,” wrote Straubel, “the dual motor Model S will quickly torque sleep a drive unit when torque is not needed and instantly wake it up as the accelerator is pressed to command more torque. It continues spinning while asleep and the digital torque wake-up is so fast that the driver can’t perceive it. It is far superior to the slow and awkward engine startup on stop-start hybrid vehicles. We choose to sleep the rear unit since the new generation small front drive unit is actually more efficient.”

THE VEHICLES

Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart/Flickr

Lux Research: Cheap oil will temporarily impact EV sales How much the latest plunge in oil prices will affect plugin sales is anybody’s guess. Consumers have shown themselves to be pretty oblivious to history - when gas prices go down, the SUVs start flying off the lots. Will EVs be watching sadly from the sidelines?

Lux Research is taking the long view. In “Just a Speed Bump: Despite Cheap Oil, Niche Plug-in Vehicle Sales Will be Resilient,” Lux predicts a moderate sales slump, but expects oil prices to head back up before long. In the most likely case, EV sales will dip by about 20% for a number of years, while PHEV sales will shrink 14%.

Sales won’t see any disastrous drop, says Lux, because the consumer base for EVs and PHEVs remains relatively insensitive to oil price. Most buyers are technophiles and/ or greenies, not penny-pinchers.

“To take an example, the Tesla buyer that can afford to pay almost $100,000 for an EV is not swayed too much by the economics of the gas pump. Not all EV buyers are

rich, of course, but many buyers of even cheaper EVs like the Nissan LEAF are early adopters driven more by environmental concerns and plug-in vehicle perks rather than gas prices.”

Lux believes today’s low oil prices are partly the result of a war for market share between different oil suppliers, and will eventually creep back up.

Lux expects hybrid sales will be the hardest-hit, with volumes dropping as much as 33%, as a significant portion of their buyers do look carefully at gas prices and payback period.

Fr om

korea

Soul with

By Charles Morris

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THE VEHICLES Kia introduces a strong contender to the growing EV market

C

Images © CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine

harged faithfully reports on every new plug-in vehicle that comes out, and while there are reasons to be excited about pretty much all of them, there’s always a question lingering in the background: Does this manufacturer plan to actively market its new EV, or is this just another compliance car, to be produced in limited quantities, sold only in California, and discontinued after a few years?

This time, let’s put that question on the table right away. There are several good reasons to believe that the Kia Soul EV is the real thing. Some in the media have called it a compliance car, but that isn’t strictly accurate, because Kia is not currently required to produce an EV under California’s ZEV mandate. The company won’t be deemed a large-volume manufacturer until 2018, so it isn’t required to build zero-emission vehicles at this time.

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Kia is not currently required to produce an EV under California’s ZEV mandate.

Photo courtesy of Kia

It’s also significant that Kia has already invested an estimated $15 million in TV ads for its new EV in 2014, making it second in EV ads only to Nissan, which spent some $31 million on TV ads last year promoting the LEAF, according to the advertising metrics firm iSpot.

Perhaps most encouraging of all, Kia has done its homework, and designed a compelling vehicle with features designed to make it stand out from the competition. This is not Kia’s first EV - the Ray EV has been on sale in Korea for a couple of years. The company has applied the lessons learned from that vehicle, and also taken into account the common complaints about other EVs. The Soul has a range of 93 miles, the longest in the sub-Tesla segment, and it has a reasonable amount of cargo space - a sore point with other models. It comes with CHAdeMO DC fast charging as a standard feature.

These are all encouraging signs that Kia is serious about selling its new EV. And, after driving the Soul EV and comparing it to the competition, we’re confident that the company could be quite successful in doing so.

A spirited soul As EV Product Manager Steve Kosowski told Charged, Kia decided several years ago that the Soul was the right model to electrify. With its practical design and distinctive looks, it’s one of the company’s most popular offerings, and has a cool cachet among the young and hip. “From a design and imagery standpoint, it made a lot of sense,” said Kosowski. “Then, from a packaging point of view, it made even more sense because we have a lot of space under the floor to package the battery.” The Soul’s sill height and cabin height allow the battery to be placed at the bottom of the vehicle, which not only improves handling, but gives the car a roomy interior with little battery intrusion.

Most of the electrifying automakers seem to agree that a compact hatchback is the most popular form factor among those buyers who are likely to be interested in an EV. “The actual footprint of the car, the size of the car, works really well whether you’re in a metro city in the US, Europe, or Asia,” said Kosowski. “So, globally, the car made a lot of sense.”

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THE VEHICLES

As soon as we can get the supply, we’re going to start selling the car outside of California.

Deliveries of the Soul EV began in South Korea in May 2014, followed shortly by selected markets in Europe (it’s selling “exceptionally well” in Norway). It went on sale in October in California, with plans to expand to Oregon and a few East Coast markets later. “We’re putting together our launch and roll-out plans for those markets, but the issue is actually getting enough cars,” Kosowski told us. “As soon as we can get the supply, we’re going to start selling the car outside of California.

What we don’t want to do is starve our California dealers after they’ve already invested in chargers and tools

and training. The Soul EV is the first electric car we’ve sold outside of Korea. So, we want to make sure that the quality is there, that the suppliers and the distributors and the dealers and everybody in the whole chain is ready and there are no problems.”

After we spoke with Kosowski, Orth Hedrick, VP of Product Planning, told AutoblogGreen that customer demand has inspired Kia to accelerate its roll-out plans.

“We went back to the factory and told them it’s doing very well and it’s now expanded beyond an EV, it’s something bigger,” he said. “It’s helping us get a dialogue with a completely new, different customer that we normally wouldn’t see in a Kia store.”

“When we looked at it originally, we were trying to go beyond the compliance part,” he said. “We understood, of course, that we had to do it, but we wanted to showcase something that was really strong for us, which is the Soul, and we thought it would help build out the Soul family and bring more people to see us and that’s exactly what’s happening. It was a little more than com-

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THE VEHICLES We looked at the volume of CHAdeMO chargers in the US, and we thought the prudent thing to do was to fit the car with the CHAdeMO port

Don’t forget the dealers One large, and underappreciated, stumbling block to EV sales is the lack of knowledge and enthusiasm among dealers. Kia is addressing this with a program to qualify its dealers, who must meet specific requirements on both the sales and technical sides before they can sell the car. Before launch, Kia organized a couple of special training events for the Soul EV. “Dealers, sales folks and management all got together at an off-site location, and went through all of the nuances of the Soul EV, and they drove cars, and so on. We declared that there must be two salesmen and two technicians. But, as it turned out, the dealers pretty much sent every available sales person to go through the training, which was, to us, a good sign. The dealers had to buy tools to service the cars…and they also had to put in a minimum of three Level 2 chargers. We installed a DC fast charger at each dealer - we’re using an ABB Terra 53 CJ, which has a CCS nozzle and a CHAdeMO nozzle.”

Like its Japanese counterparts, the Soul EV uses CHAdeMO fast charging. However, Kia decided to install dual-standard fast chargers at its dealership locations. “We looked at both standards - it was about three years ago when we needed to make that decision,” said Kosowski. “At the time, there was some genuine interest in CCS. Then we looked at the volume of CHAdeMO chargers in the US, and we thought the prudent thing to do was to fit the car with the CHAdeMO port, and it seems to be the right decision. I think there’s a growing proliferation of CCS devices, but a lot of new chargers are fitted with both nozzles. It’s kind of like a gas pump, where you you’ve got a diesel nozzle and a gasoline nozzle.”

Photo courtesy of Kia

pliance but I think we were kind of shocked at how well it was received. It’s been a huge hit.”

Hedrick conceded that Kia was not in a position to quickly ramp up production, but said the company hopes to announce a plan by April that will include wider availability than originally planned.

93 27 miles of range

kWh battery pack

JAN/FEB 2015

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Left, Top and Bottom courtesy of Kia; Right © CHARGED EVs

6.6 49.5 kW onboard charger

“On the dealer side of the equation, we for the dealer to give them a Soul EV to wanted to make a long-term investment, test-drive.” so if you’ve got a $30,000 charger and you’ve got the choice to offer both ports, Under the hood it’s prudent to do so. The dealer can charge cubic feet cargo capacity The Soul has a couple of strong selling with the seats down a Soul EV, a LEAF or an i-MiEV. But, if points vis a vis the other pure EVs on the somebody wheels up in an i3, a Chevy US market. “It’s got 93 miles of range, and Spark or an e-Golf, you’ve got the option that’s more than any other EV out there, to charge them. If he takes one of those except for Model S [and a couple of nowcars in trade in the next ten years, he has the ability to discontinued compliance cars],” said Kosowski. “The car recharge that car. Finally, from a business point of view, starts with a great design, it’s a cool, iconic car, so there’s all of our chargers at the dealers are networked. We use a little bit of a design statement there. Also, the car has Greenlots, and if the dealer wants to charge the cussome functioning utility to it, and that differentiates us tomer to recharge his EV, he can - it’s up to the dealer. from other EVs out there. I’ve talked with 50 or 60 Soul But, at least with the twin-port DC charger, he can EV customers, who say ‘I looked at a LEAF, or an e-Golf, charge competitive EVs on his property. On the other or an i3, but your car drives wonderfully, it’s very quiet, side of it, that charger will attract EV customers to the the battery’s down low, so it feels planted, and it looks dealership, and if they park their e-Golf or their i3 for cool, but it’s also got this utility factor to it that those twenty minutes while they recharge, it’s an opportunity others don’t have.’ Some people have even said, ‘I’ve got

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THE VEHICLES

It’s got 93 miles of range, and that’s more than any other EV out there, except for Model S [and a couple of now-discontinued compliance cars]. a first-generation RAV4 EV - remember those? This Soul EV has about as much space on the inside as my RAV4 EV.’” The Soul’s electric powertrain technology was developed by an R&D organization that is shared by both Hyundai and Kia. “At the Nanyang R&D center, there’s a couple of big buildings where they do nothing but electrification engineering and development,” Kosowski told us. “The engineers are working on motors and controllers, batteries, fuel cells…they’re just engineering and developing electromobility.” Outside the engineers’ domain, the two Korean automakers are competitors.

“They are two separate entities - we don’t talk to one another. In Korea, there’s a Kia building and a Hyundai building - we call them the Twin Towers. There is an ownership relationship, but the management of the two companies is essentially independent.”

The Kia Ray, sold only in Korea, is “kind of like the original Scion XB, in the sense that it’s a very small,

A-segment car, very boxy. It’s got a sliding door on one side, and hinged doors on the other side.” The EV version represents a small program, intended for the local market, with the purpose of testing and developing a commercial EV. The Soul’s 27 kWh battery pack has a specific energy of 200 Wh/kg. The cells, made by SK Innovation, feature a nickel cobalt manganese cathode (similar to those used in the i3 and next-gen Volt) and a carbon graphite anode, both bathed in a gel electrolyte. Kia’s engineers worked hard to give the battery a stable “distance to empty” (meaning that the remaining range decreases at a fairly uniform rate, with no unpleasant surprises), and long life with little degradation over time (although only several years of service will reveal how well they succeeded at this goal). Underneath the battery pack are 5 steel cross-members that help support it and protect it from intrusion.

The AC synchronous permanent-magnet motor is

JAN/FEB 2015

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Those clever hamsters at Kia found many ways to increase efficiency and squeeze out a few more miles of range.

organic content. It contains 53 pounds of bio-based materials - the plastics that make up the headliner and interior trim are made from corn and sugar.

There are no options as such, and just two trim levels: the Soul EV, and the Soul EV Plus. The Plus adds leather seat trim, folding side mirrors, front and rear park sense, and cooled front seats (the base model has only heated front seats). MSRP for the base model is $34,500 (before any incentives). It’s also available for lease at $249 a month for 36 months, with $1,999 due at signing.

Kia has three official charging partners - Soul EV buyers can choose a charger from Bosch, Aerovironment or Leviton, and the cost of the charger can be included in a lease.

When it comes to the all-important road test, the Soul EV passed with flying colors. Charged drove one for two weeks, and we found it a joy to live with. When you punch the pedal it leaps ahead enthusiastically, just as an EV should. Handling is smooth as silk, turning radius is excellent, and all the high-tech goodies work as advertised.

A maturing market The EV market is getting more crowded all the time, but Kia’s offering is a very strong contender. The Soul EV’s generous interior space and slightly better range give it an edge over its natural competitors, the LEAF and the i3 (VW’s new e-Golf may be the EV to watch, however,

Photo © CHARGED EVs

liquid-cooled, and musters 109 hp and 210 lb-ft of torque.

A plastic panel where the front grill would be slides open to reveal a J1772 and a CHAdeMO plug. The 6.6 kW onboard charger can be programmed to charge at specific times, in order to take advantage of off-peak electric rates, and the climate control system can be set to pre-condition the cabin at any desired time (these features can also be controlled from a smartphone). All this, and today’s vast range of navigation, entertainment and communications options, is accessed through the 8-inch touchscreen, which also offers a rear camera display when in reverse.

The Uvo application shows the locations of the nearest charging stations.

Those clever hamsters at Kia found many ways to increase efficiency and squeeze out a few more miles of range. The combined heating and AC unit works by way of a heat pump, reducing HVAC energy consumption by 27% compared to a traditional system. There’s a button to select driver-only ventilation, which can save a little juice, as well as air induction control, which monitors the outside temperature, and runs the AC compressor only when necessary. A full front-to-rear belly pan improves aerodynamic drag by 5%, and also makes the interior quieter. Kia assures us that the super-low-rolling-resistance tires are 10% more efficient than the mere low-rollingresistance type.

The Soul EV uses Kia’s 3rd-generation regenerative braking system, the same used on the Optima hybrid.

A neat feature: there are two levels of regen, which you select with the gear lever. In D, the Soul drives like a regular car, coasting when you take your foot off the pedal. In B, the regen kicks in as soon as you take your foot off, allowing a “one-pedal” driving technique and maximizing range.

At 105 MPGe, the Kia’s efficiency rating lies in the middle of the pack: ahead of the much larger Model S, but exceeded by the VW e-Golf (116 MPGe) and the efficiency leader, the BMW i3 (124 MPGe).

Cargo capacity is 18.8 cubic feet with the rear seats up, or 49.5 cubic feet with the seats down. With the seats down, you have a nice open space (none of the oddshaped protrusions found in some EVs), and the back is square, not sloped like most hatchbacks, so hauling tall objects is no problem. There’s a small compartment under the cargo deck for storing the charging adapters.

Like several other automakers these days, Kia strives to reduce the amount of fossil fuels consumed in the manufacturing process. The Soul EV has earned validation from Underwriters’ Laboratories for its bio-based

THE VEHICLES The EV market is getting more crowded all the time, but Kia’s offering is a very strong contender. theme. It was presented to management, and we were able to get the funding and the marketing support behind it, and it seems to have worked.”

Does Kia have any other plug-in models in the pipeline? Kosowski wouldn’t comment, but at the last Detroit Auto Show, Ki-Sang Lee, a Senior VP who’s head of the Hyundai-Kia R&D Center for “eco-friendly vehicles,” said that the company is developing a thirdgeneration hybrid platform. The second generation is represented by the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Plug-In Hybrid, which are to go on sale this year. And a new Kia Optima Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid are expected to be introduced later this year.

Photo courtesy of Kia

with a similar range to the Soul, and even more cargo space - 52.7 cubic feet with seats folded).

As everyone with a TV set knows, automakers put a lot of money into TV ad campaigns, but only Nissan, GM and, lately, BMW have done any substantial advertising for their electric models. It’s no coincidence that these are the only companies that have had any substantial EV sales (apart from Tesla, which doesn’t seem to need to do anything that other automakers do). Kia’s hamsters are already hard at work selling the Soul EV. “The top management within KMA wanted to get behind the car, they wanted to promote it, they wanted to essentially let the market know that we have a green EV based on Soul. We wanted to attach the hamster theme as well, since we’ve gotten a lot of traction from that strategy in the marketplace.

The agency we work with is David and Goliath, and they’re some of the best marketing and advertising people in the industry. There’s a great, wonderful, creative process that’s a mix of some KMA folks and David and Goliath folks, and they came up with this

105 210 lb-ft of torque.

Photo © CHARGED EVs

MPGe (combined city/highway)

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Deep Into

The Data

By Matt Stevens, FleetCarma CEO

Is this normal?

That is the question many first-time EV owners ask when the mercury drops below the freezing point. While cold weather affects all vehicles, the impact on plug-in vehicles can feel particularly intense.

A year ago, we published data that showed the realworld range for Nissan LEAFs and Chevrolet Volts across a relatively wide temperature range. The goal was to show what was “normal.”

We received a lot of requests to dig deeper and add more models, so we did.

This time we wanted to use even more data, so we pulled a large dataset and then pared it to yield a subset that was equal parts ICE, PHEV and BEV. The resulting trove included nearly half a million trips, spanning five continents, with a total distance of five trips to the moon and back. Most importantly, the data ranged from -36° F (-38° C) to 115° F (46° C).

Our intention was to answer the following questions: • What is the temperature impact on plug-in vehicles, and does this differ among models?

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The Dataset

The FleetCarma database is based on working with fleets, utilities, and researchers to select and deploy plug-in vehicles. Over the past five years, FleetCarma has been logging conventional vehicles in fleets to determine suitability for EV replacement. As fleets were deploying EVs based on these recommendations, they asked for an EV monitoring solution since existing telematics systems were unable to read the needed EV signals. The C5 logger was built for this purpose, plugging into the OBD port and able to decode the relevant EV signals. These units have been deployed and are generally used for fleet optimization, EV research, smart-charging, and energy/emissions reporting.

A version for individuals named myEV was recently launched. The result is a large database of realworld EV performance.

EVs in the cold

Based on the data FleetCarma published last year, the average LEAF range was reduced by 20% at 32° F (0° C) and 29% at 0° F (-19° C); however, the reduction in range varied heavily depending on the driver’s HVAC utilization. The Volt showed a similar range-reduction trend until the engine-runningdue-to-temperature threshold was hit.

• How much does the real-world range vary by driver?

• Are newer designs less sensitive to temperature effects?

• How does the temperature impact compare among BEVs, PHEVs, and ICEs?

Photo courtesy of Nissan

FleetCarma Goes

While cold weather affects all vehicles, the impact on plug-in vehicles can feel particularly intense.

THE VEHICLES Real-world efficiency by model

Figure 1

BEV Energy Consumption vs. Temperature -7

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Figure 1 is a summary of the energy consumption of common BEVs and PHEVs. Volt trips without any engine use are included in the BEV chart, while all Volt trips are included in the PHEV chart. From a first glance at the charts, two things are immediately apparent: all PHEVs show a strikingly similar trend; and the shape of the Model S curve is notably different than the others.

The underlying data was analyzed to understand what causes the increased energy consumption. In general, the temperature effect can be broken into four temperature zones:

0.16

Temperature [C]

• Cold: below 32° F (0° C) • Mild: between 32° F (0° C) to 64° F (18° C) • Ideal: between 64° F (18° C) and 77° F (25° C) • Warm: above 77° F (25° C)

Focus EV

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In the warm zone the shape of the 9 curve is driven by the air-conditioning 8 loads. In the ideal zone the auxiliary loads are the lowest and, as expected, 7 the best efficiencies are seen. In the mild zone the electric heating load is 6 the main driver of reduced efficiency.

In BEVs, the heating loads continue 5 to be the main driver in the cold zone, whereas increased use of the engine 4 is the main driver for PHEVs in the 3 cold zone. The specific use of the -19 engine varies slightly by PHEV, but is generally for heat generation and to maintain vehicle performance despite reduced battery power availability.

Reduced battery efficiency was only significant below -4° F (-20° C).

The shape of the Model S curve is notably different than those of other BEVs. Unlike all of the other plug-ins, which show a continuous rise in energy consumption as soon as the temperature drops below standard ther-

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mostat settings, the Model S shows a much flatter curve until 25° F (-4° C). This correlated to significantly lower auxiliary loads for the Model S in these temperature ranges as compared to other BEVs. Unless Tesla owners tend to wear significantly warmer coats, this seemed odd.

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Figure 2

Tesla Daily Utilization

Vehicle Off Charging Driving

Vehicle Status Over Six Days Ambient temperatures vary from 12°F to 31°F

Analyzing the data between trips uncovered a notable difference between the Tesla and other plug-ins.

Nearly all of the plug-ins that are logged in the FleetCarma system wake up between trips and perform some battery management in cold weather, whereas Model S wake-ups are more frequent, last longer and draw more energy, as shown in Figure 2. At 25° F, one Model S would wake up at six-hour intervals, performing maintenance operations for just over two hours, drawing 400-500 Wh in energy. The result is a more conditioned battery.

While the wake-up procedure is common, the increased usage of this process in the Model S shifts more energy consumption from during the trip to between trips.

At a given temperature, how much does range vary by drivers?

The dataset we sampled included a large amount of LEAF data over a wide temperature range. The variance in realworld range is shown in Figure 3. The blue band represents 50% of all trips. For instance, at 75° F (24° C) half of

58

At 25° F, one Model S would wake up on six-hour intervals, performing maintenance operations for just over two hours, drawing 400-500 Wh in energy. the trips logged for that temperature had a range between 76 and 100 miles. The white line in the blue zones shows an average range of 87 miles and the orange line shows that the top 10% of trips had 116 miles or more of range.

While the blue band narrows slightly as temperature decreases, it remains significant at all temperatures.

In the ideal temperature zone the variability is driven

Photo by Robert Nordqvist

Wake-Up & System Management

THE VEHICLES Figure 3

Nissan LEAF: Range vs Temperature Spanning All Model Years

The top 10% of trips had 116 miles or more of range.

Temperature [F]

almost exclusively by drive cycle. Outside of the ideal temperature zone the variability is a combination of drive cycle, HVAC utilization, and vehicle pre-conditioning.

Both the LEAF and the Model S results underscore the significant impact that preconditioning can have on real-world range.

Scheduling charging to finish just prior to departure or pre-conditioning the vehicle appears to add 10-15% more range.

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including an updated HVAC system using a heat pump.

[Editors note: The 2013 LEAF used the same 24 kWh battery pack as the previous model, and was introduced with an EPA-estimated 75 mile range, only a slight increase from the 2012 model’s at 73 miles. However, Nissan later said that when using an updated EPA testing procedure the 2013 model’s range would be rated as high as 98 84 miles, an 11-mile improvement over 100 the previous year’s model.]

We divided the LEAF range data into 85 the two designs and charted the results in Figure 4. The data revealed that the 70 newer design shows improved range at nearly all temperatures. On average, the 55 new design nets an additional 8 miles (12 km) of range.

40 This bump in range due to a midmodel update underscores the speed of 25 36 development on plug-in technology and bodes well for the performance of the new Volt design and upcoming LEAF redesign.

Range [mile]

Range [km]

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50% of trips fall in the blue region.

The top 10% of trips had a range at or above the orange line.

The white line in the blue region is the average range for all the trips.

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Nissan LEAF Model Year Comparison Range vs Temperature 160

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The dataset was mined to extract any cases in which a new design could be compared to an earlier design. The best example of this was the Nissan LEAF. The 2013 model year of the LEAF included a number of refinements to the vehicle,

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Are new designs improving cold-weather performance?

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THE VEHICLES Are plug-in vehicles impacted more by cold weather than conventional vehicles?

Figure 5

Percentage Increase In Energy Consumption Temperature [F] 7

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Increase In Energy Consumption [%]

Figure 5 contains two charts showing the impact of cold weather both on a percentage and a cost basis.

-13 -3 Based on a percentage of increased energy consumption, the upper curve 160% shows that the plug-in vehicles have dramatically higher fluctuations com120% pared to conventional vehicles.

However, it may be more useful to 80% understand the impact of cold weather on the owner’s wallet. The lower curve shows the extra energy cost per 40% 100 miles assuming gasoline costs of $3.80 per gallon (about the average 0% price of gas in Canada in early 2015, -25 where FleetCarma is headquartered), $2.20 per gallon (about the average price gas in the US in early 2015), and $0.10 per kWh for electricity.

At $3.80 per gallon, weather clearly affects the cost of operating an ICE vehicle the most. At $3.00 per gallon, -13 -3 the PHEV and ICE curves essentially $7 fall along the same line. And at $2.20 $6 per gallon, the effects of weather on operating costs of ICE vehicles ap$5 proached that of BEVs. $4 Looking at these two curves it becomes clear that, although cold $3 weather has a larger impact on plug$2 in vehicles on a percentage basis, the financial impact of temperature is $1 typically more significant for con$0 ventional vehicles. In most cases, the -25 payback for electric vehicles actually improves as the weather gets colder.

BEV Worldwide oil prices are currently at the lowest point in five years, which shifts these numbers slightly. However, the volatile and unpredictable nature of gasoline costs compared to electricity bodes well for EVs particularly with number-crunching fleet operators, because electricity is consistently cheap.

The bottom line: Is the impact of cold weather on your

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vehicle normal? It probably is. If you want more range, you have three options: use pre-conditioning, use heated seats instead of the cabin heater, or wait until April.

Happy driving!

JAN/FEB 2015

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CURRENTevents

Image © CHARGED EVs

DOE and utilities produce EV charging impact report

Danish electomobility operator CLEVER plans to expand its charging network in Denmark and neighboring countries with 100 ABB Terra 53 multi-standard DC fast charging stations.

The new chargers will be installed through partners, including Öresundskraft in Sweden. The network will continue expanding into other countries with support from the European TEN-T funding program.

CLEVER currently operates 100 charging locations in Denmark, including both AC and DC chargers.

ABB’s Terra 53 offers connectivity features that allow the stations to be remotely monitored, and the ABB Charger Care service program can respond to any service or maintenance needs. ABB’s connected platform also provides a backbone for CLEVER’s payment solutions and administrative systems, and allows the charging stations to connect to smart grids.

“For EV consumers and network operators it is critical to have confidence that EV charging is as available, reliable, and convenient as traditional mobility,” said CLEVER CEO Lars Bording. “That makes it critical for rapidly emerging markets to have partners who not only offer hardware but also the experience and proven solutions for commerce, administration and related services, and who understand how to connect all this to the grid.”

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Image courtesy of ABB

Danish network adds 100 ABB DC fast chargers

A new report from the DOE describes the findings from six Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) projects, in which electric utilities around the country evaluated operations and customer charging behaviors for home and public EV charging stations.

The report, Evaluating Electric Vehicle Charging Impacts and Customer Charging Behaviors, is intended to help utilities determine how long existing distribution infrastructure will remain sufficient to accommodate growing numbers of EVs (utilities are forecasting 400% growth in plug-in sales by 2023), and what type of capacity upgrades may be needed. It also examines how pricing and incentives can encourage consumers to charge during off-peak periods.

The six SGIG projects evaluated 270 public charging stations and 700 residential charging units. The study found that the vast majority of home charging participants charged their vehicles overnight during off-peak periods. Where offered, time-based rates were successful in encouraging greater off-peak charging. Public charging station usage was low, and primarily took place during business hours.

Length of charging sessions and the power required varied greatly. While the power demand to charge most vehicles was 3-6 kW, the load from one EV model (the Tesla Model S?) can be as much as 19 kW - more than the load for most large singlefamily homes.

Some utilities found interoperability problems between smart meters and residential charging stations. One company found that the two devices connected successfully only 50% of the time during load reduction events.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Image courtesy of Nissan

Nissan and Hydro-Québec partner to expand public charging Nissan has announced that it will support the expansion of the Electric Circuit public charging network with an investment in 25 DC fast charging sites. The Electric Circuit includes more than 360 public charging stations in operation in Québec, including 8 fast-charge stations.

The new sites will be located at short-stop locations like restaurant chains and convenience stores.

Québec City-based AddÉnergie will supply the chargers, which will be equipped with both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo plugs.

“With record sales for the Nissan LEAF, more Canadians are embracing electric mobility, and this growth will continue as public charging infrastructure continues to expand, making longer distance drives even easier,” said Christian Meunier, President of Nissan Canada. “This is the next phase of Nissan’s commitment to supporting electric mobility in Canada, and we understand that charging infrastructure should support all electric vehicles to make maximum impact.”

You asked for White...

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“Nissan has been at the forefront of promoting electric mobility globally,” said Hydro-Québec VP Pierre-Luc Desgagné. “With Nissan’s important support of the next phase of the Electric Circuit, we’ll ensure even more EV drivers have the convenience of fast charging while continuing the deployment of Level 2 chargers throughout the province.”

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CURRENTevents

One indicator of an automaker’s seriousness about EVs may be its willingness to invest a substantial amount in charging infrastructure, as Nissan and Tesla have done.

BMW and Volkswagen, together with ChargePoint, announced an initiative to create express charging corridors on the East and West Coasts of the US. In the initial phase, to be completed by the end of 2015, about 100 DC fast charging ports will be installed in the most highly-trafficked regions along I-95, from Boston to Washington DC, and on the west coast connecting the metro areas of Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The stations will be spaced a maximum of 50 miles apart, and will be located at convenient locations such as restaurants, shopping centers and rest stops.

“A robust network of conveniently located DC fast charging stations will go a long way toward increasing electric vehicle adoption and making electric vehicle ownership even more enjoyable,” said Robert Healey, Head of EV Infrastructure at BMW of North America.

“The express charging corridors are another important step in the development of the US e-mobility infrastructure that makes longer distance travel a real option for consumers, particularly along the most heavily trafficked portions of both coasts - making the BMW i3 and other electric vehicles even more appealing.”

“Volkswagen believes in a holistic approach to emobility in order to create a seamless experience for the consumer,” said Jörg Sommer, VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at Volkswagen of America. “The investment

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Image courtesy of ChargePoint

CCS fast charging corridors coming to East and West Coast

in the express charging corridor will provide e-Golf and other electric vehicle owners with the added support to travel their day-to-day and popular long distance routes.”

Each location is expected to include up to two 50 kW or 24 kW DC fast chargers with the SAE Combo connector, as well as Level 2 chargers. The DC fast charging stations will be part of the ChargePoint network.

“Our goal at ChargePoint is to get everyone behind the wheel of an EV and provide EV charging everywhere they go,” said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint CEO. “With strategically-placed stations where drivers need them, these express charging corridors will give EV drivers the freedom to go farther and have an EV as their only car without limitation.”

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Image courtesy of Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr

Germany plans push for more charging stations

Germany seems to be coming around to the wisdom of getting charged. Europe’s largest economy hopes to spur EV demand by expanding its network of EV charging stations, Reuters reported.

The news organization cited a paper published by the German Transport Ministry, which said that motorway services operator Tank & Rast will install DC fast chargers at its 400 sites by 2017, with the government covering part of the construction costs.

The German government has announced a goal of putting a million plug-in vehicles on the country’s roads by the end of the decade. However, unlike neighboring France and Holland, Germany currently offers little in the way of incentives.

The country has only about 100 DC fast chargers and about 4,800 Level 2 charging stations, according to the Transport Ministry.

“We will set up quick service charging stations along the motorways across Germany,” Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Passauer Neue Presse this week.

In 2014, Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested introducing tax breaks and cash rebates, and the legislature considered a bill that would give EV drivers access to bus lanes.

Kansas utility to install 1,000 charging stations Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) has announced plans to install and operate more than 1,000 EV charging stations in the Kansas City region, which the company says will be the largest charging station installation by an electric utility in the US. KCP&L’s Clean Charge Network will be part of the ChargePoint network, and will offer free charging to all drivers for the first two years. Installation began in late 2014, and will be completed this summer. The first stations deployed will include 15 fast charging stations provided by Nissan.

“The Kansas City region is quickly building a reputation as an innovative, sustainable place to live and work,” said Terry Bassham, CEO of KCP&L parent company Great Plains Energy. “We will place the stations where they’re needed most and support them as part of our electric grid, leveraging our expertise with electrical infrastructure.”

KCP&L is not new to EV infrastructure. In 2011, it installed ten public charging stations, and later added more through its SmartGrid Demonstration Project. The company used these stations to test technologies and behaviors, laying the foundation for the Clean Charge Network.

“We’ve learned a lot over the last few years about how our customers use electric vehicles,” said Bassham. “Combined with our knowledge of the electric grid and award-winning reliability, we think we’re well-suited to operate the electric vehicle network.”

Local politicians and environmentalists praised the project. “People generally charge their cars at non-peak periods when KCP&L’s electrical grid is being underutilized,” said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Energy Economist Ashok Gupta. “By stimulating electric vehicle adoption with their Clean Charge Network, KCP&L is encouraging people to use the electrical grid more efficiently and drive down the cost of electricity for everyone.”

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CURRENTevents

Atlanta has become an unexpected EV hotspot - it’s now the #2 market in the US for plug-in vehicles, and the #1 market for the Nissan LEAF. The local electric utility, Georgia Power, sees this as a growth opportunity, and has launched a $12-million program called Get Current to drive more EV sales.

The utility already has more than 1,400 customers on its plug-in vehicle rate plan, and intends to expand the region’s charging infrastructure. Beginning this year, Georgia Power will offer a $250 incentive to residential customers to install Level 2 chargers, as well as a $500 incentive to commercial building owners.

The company also plans to install 50 EV charging “islands” at public locations, as well as its own buildings. The first group of 11 public chargers will be deployed at company locations and should be installed by the summer.

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Image courtesy of United States Mint

Georgia Power launches $12-million EVSE program

AeroVironment has introduced a new EV charging station for commercial and workplace settings that is controlled through a smartphone app.

TurboDock charges at Level 1 (12 amps/120 volts), or Level 2 (16 amps/240 volts), and has several features specially designed for commercial and workplace charging.

When configured for 12-amp or 16-amp charging, TurboDock provides twice as many chargers with the same electrical service required for 30-amp charging. Its modular design allows owners to expand the number of chargers as needed. TurboDock comes in two models: a pedestal unit with one to four chargers per location and a wall adapter with one or two chargers per location.

The software can be configured to meet the specific needs of each operator. For example, an administrator can give one universal access code to all users, assign each user a unique access code, or choose open access.

MSRP is $1,299 for the charging module only, and $1,798 for the charging module and mounting plate or pedestal.

“TurboDock is the simple, quick and practical workplace charging system because it’s easy to install, easy to use, cost-effective and secure,” said AeroVironment Senior VP Wahid Nawabi. “The first-of-its-kind system puts Bluetooth-enabled smartphone access control of charging stations right at the fingertips of employers, landlords and property managers who need a better solution for meeting the charging demands of their EV-driving staff, tenants and patrons.”

Image courtesy of AeroVironment

AeroVironment’s new TurboDock modular EVSE

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Photo by Green Energy Futures (flickr)

Minnesota sets off-peak rates as low as 3.3 cents/kWh Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest power company, has asked state regulators to approve an off-peak EV charging rate of 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, a 43% discount to the usual residential rate.

“We are trying to provide more options for customers,” said Xcel exec Chris Clark. “This is really how we’re seeing the future. We think customers are going to want to tailor their energy services to their particular uses.”

With fuel charges added, the rate, which would apply from 9 pm to 9 am on weekdays, and all weekend, would actually be 6 cents per kWh. Participants must also pay a $4.95 monthly charge to cover the cost of a separate electric meter. Clark said EV owners should save about $9 per month.

According to Xcel, there are about 2,000 electric cars in its Minnesota territory, and the off-peak rates equate to about 50 cents per gallon of gasoline.

EV Fleet Optimization

Under a 2014 state law, investor-owned utilities must offer special rates to plugin drivers, as well as the option to buy renewable power. Xcel, which is the nation’s most windpowerreliant utility, also proposes to give customers the option to purchase only wind power - the “Windsource” option would cost about $2 more per month.

According to the Northeast Group, 25 utilities in 14 states currently offer special EV rates. Minnesota is the first state to require that they do so. Minnesota Power of Duluth and Otter Tail Power of Fergus Falls said they will also offer EV rate programs.

Smart Charging Programs

EV Research

THE WORLD LEADER IN ELECTRIC VEHICLE MONITORING  www.fleetcarma.com |  1.800.975.2434 |  contact@fleetcarma.com

EV ADVOCATE to Charging

Entrepreneur

By Michael Kent

Tony Williams on his journey into the EVSE business

ou may remember a little Nissan LEAF battery controversy that popped up a few years ago. Beginning in May 2012, a handful of LEAF owners located in Phoenix, Arizona started posting on forums that, according to the car’s dashboard display, their batteries were losing capacity much faster than they were expecting. In July of 2012, Nissan took seven Phoenixarea LEAFs to a corporate testing facility and checked them out, but the company made no substantive comments about the test results for months.

In September 2012, when an Australian news agency quoted Nissan executive Andy Palmer implying that there was nothing wrong with the batteries, and that the instrumentation that reports range was faulty, a group of concerned LEAF-lovers decided to take matters into their own hands. Led by Tony Williams, the group conducted tests to get to the bottom of the battery degradation question. They measured the real-world range of their vehicles, with conditions meticulously documented, and reported the results online in great detail. Williams and company concluded that LEAFs with lost capacity bars had indeed lost range, and that some of the cars tested also had “huge differences between the instruments and the actual range performance.”

Y

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Nissan LEAF charging ports

Tesla Model S charging port

Photo courtesy of Quick Charge Power

Tony Williams, Founder of Quick Charge Power

At the time, I was just an advocate who really wanted the Nissan LEAF to succeed.

JAN/FEB 2015

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Photos courtesy of Quick Charge Power

JLONG

I thought it was the car that was going to lead the way

JESLA

“At the time, I was just an advocate who really wanted the Nissan LEAF to succeed,” Tony Williams told Charged. “We tried to do our tests as openly as we could, because we wanted to show everyone that there was a real problem that needed to be fixed.”

The whole issue was put to rest when Nissan took several steps to mitigate any technical or public relations problems, including: establishing an independent “LEAF Advisory Board” to improve communications with customers (including Williams as a charter member); buying back a couple of LEAFs that had lost capacity; announcing a 2013 LEAF with a new and improved battery; and upgrading the LEAF’s warranty to cover capacity loss.

Before the battery brouhaha, Williams spent his free time helping to roll out DC Fast Charging infrastructure.

When he wasn’t busy at his full-time job - an aviation professional and airline pilot for nearly 30 years - he worked to install the very first DC Fast Charger on the

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ChargePoint network in San Juan Capistrano, California.

“It’s one of the busiest, if not the busiest,” said Williams, who is a part owner of the station. “We’re over 4,000 paid charge events now.”

“My interest at the time wasn’t to be in business, to be honest. I had a LEAF, and I wanted to help it succeed, because I thought it was the car that was going to lead the way. It was a lot of legwork to get that first charger installed. But we got it done, and I’m very proud of that.”

In the aftermath of the LEAF battery controversy, however, Williams says he was “a little frustrated with Nissan,” and decided to buy a Toyota RAV4 EV. JESLA - a company is born The second-generation RAV4 EV - released September 2012 in limited quantities in California - has a battery and powertrain built by Tesla. Like the Model S, the RAV4 EV is equipped with a high-power onboard charger, relative to other EVs on the market. At 10 kW, Wil-

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

There were a couple options for a 40 A J1772, but they were big, clunky, not very portable, and very expensive. liams says he had trouble finding a portable 40 A Level 2 charging station that could deliver the fastest possible charging speed.

“There were a couple options for a 40 A J1772, but they were big, clunky, not very portable, and very expensive,” he said. “I knew that the RAV4 had a Tesla-designed onboard charging system so I thought there was no reason that the Tesla Model S mobile charging connector wouldn’t work.”

Tesla’s Mobile Connector Bundle, supplied with the Model S, will automatically adjust the current up to 40 A by switching between one of five plug adapters (NEMA 5-15, 5-20, 10-30, 14-30 or 5-20). The unit is very compact and portable, and the company was selling them for around $700 - far cheaper than other 40 A EVSE at the time. The problem, however, was that it uses Tesla’s proprietary charging connector. So, Williams bought one, hacked off the handle, wired up an SAE J1772 connector, and the rest is history.

“I didn’t know for sure that it would work,” he said. “It was a leap of faith and ended up working perfectly. So, I built one for my RAV4 and thought, ‘If I could sell a few more of these it would pay for itself.’ I put out a call on the internet and sold ten quickly. Then ten became 100 and the business was started with that product.”

Tony and his brother Bob went on to found Quick Charge Power LLC to sell charging equipment through its online store at www.QuickChargePower.com.

Securing a steady supply of Model S chargers to convert to J1772 was not easy, because Tesla is not used to supporting retail customers other than its vehicle owners. “A friend who owns a Model S helped me buy the first one,” said Williams. “But then to buy them in large quantities was a real pain in the neck sometimes.

There were times when I could source them easily and times when I couldn’t. Today I’m able to order larger quantities online and have them drop-shipped, without any issue.”

JdeMO, the CHAdeMO upgrade

Beyond EVSE equipment for the mass plug-in vehicle market, Quick Charge Power is also working on kits for drivers who are looking for a serious charging upgrade. For those EV owners without a DC Fast Charging option, Williams is building a CHAdeMO upgrade kit called JdeMO. Like the JESLA, the idea was inspired by Williams’s RAV4 EV, which was sold without any DC Fast Charging option. “There are a whole bunch of EVs already sold without any fast charging,” said Williams, “and we’ve had a number of people ask us if we could build a kit for their car.”

That’s no simple task, because the CHAdeMO kits need to communicate with the battery management system (BMS). Automakers are not interested in sharing that sort of data, so each make and model requires a time-consuming reverse engineering process. “We need to know the exact chemistry of cells and the characteristics of that chemistry so we can mitigate bad behavior very quickly,” said Williams. “With that information we monitor the BMS, via the CAN bus, for any messages of problems like over voltage, over current or over temp. We program in those basic variables and then tell the DC Fast Charger what to do. If there’s a fault of any kind, it immediately shuts

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It’s going to be completely orphaned by Toyota, since they’ve discontinued it, but the people who own the car really love it.

JAMP - necessity breeds invention At one point, Tesla stopped producing its charge cord as it rolled out a redesigned version, and Williams was left with steady demand but no supply. During that dry period, it wasn’t clear that he would ever be able buy more of Tesla’s chargers. So, naturally, he began a yearlong design process to build his own J1772 charge cord, dubbed JAMP. The first in the JAMP product line of EVSE is the JAMP JR, due out March 1st. “The JESLA is great, but it’s kind of expensive because we have to buy the unit from Tesla at retail prices, before it’s modified,” said Williams. “And there is still uncertainty about our future supply. So, we’re going to offer the JAMP JR as a simple, low-cost, portable 40 A solution. You just plug it into a 50 A outlet and it provides 40 A, or the maximum that your car will accept.”

At 40 A, the JAMP JR will be able to charge every EV currently available in North America at its fastest possible Level 2 rate, except the Tesla Roadster and Model S with two onboard chargers. The ultimate goals are affordability, full power, and high quality. Williams says that the company is pushing to be the lowest-cost 40 A J1772 charging solution, and at the planned retail price of $499, it will be.

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You just plug it into a 50 A outlet and it provides 40 A, or the maximum that your car will accept.

The JAMP JR will also be available in lower-power versions, beginning at $299, which will capture the moniker of lowest price Level 2 EVSE available anywhere. And by the end of the year, Quick Charge Power plans to offer the JAMP SR - a wall mounted unit that will cover power ranges between 41 A and 80 A. “All of our products are made in the US, assembled in Washington State,” boasts Williams. “Most of the components, like the cables, are made in California.

And the handles are built right here in San Diego county. Right down to the circuit boards, which most people farm out overseas, we build right here in California. We’re pretty proud of that.”

JLONG - in a pinch Williams has been driving EVs for about 4 years, including two Electric Vehicle rallies from Mexico to Canada

THE INFRASTRUCTURE I’ve seen some really nutty stuff out there with people stretching cords to the limit dubbed “BC2BC.” This has put him in a position to use a lot of public charging infrastructure and noticed one very common problem: the charging station cord is often too short.

“When you come to a charging spot it’s often blocked, or the last guy left his EV there, or you just can’t reach because your charge port is in the rear - like with the RAV4, BMW i3, Mercedes B-Class, and Tesla Model S,” said Williams. “The number-one problem with charge ports in the rear is when you pull into angled parking spots with a charger on the curb. Often, the cord will barely reach, or it won’t at all, and turning the car around to back it in on a busy street is nearly impossible.”

In these cases, Williams realized that a J1772 extension cord would be invaluable. So he created one, called it JLONG, and started selling it. It’s one of those products, like jumper cables or a spare tire, that when you need it, you really really need it. The unfortunate truth is that when a driver needs to charge away from home, the competition is not only other EVs, but also gas cars that want to use the charging spots for parking. The JLONG helps to satisfy this really basic need. “I’ve seen some really nutty stuff out there with people stretching cords to the limit,” said Williams.

As it turns out, many EV drivers have also realized its value, and Williams reports that it’s been very successful. “It saved my bacon quite a few times, and I’ve heard a lot of similar stories from our customers. We sell quite a few of them.”

Currently, the JLONG is available in any customized length, but Williams told us that the company will begin to standardize it to help meet high-volume demands.

Personally, he carries a 40 ft extension. “The standard car is about 20 ft long, plus or minus a few feet. So, I found that you need 40 ft just to be comfortable.”

Charged full-time In 2014, Tony spent most of the year shuttling between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East as an airline pilot, while Bob ran the daily operations of the business. With the launch of the JAMP JR, both Williams

down. The CHAdeMO standard is open - anyone can download the specs. It’s a very logical and smart engineering solution.”

The JdeMO kit will only be available for professional installation on the Toyota RAV4 EV in Summer 2015. Williams is very cautious about selling JdeMO to the general public because “there is just too great a risk of injury while working with high-voltage DC. Eventually, limited availability will be allowed to the hobbyist/homebuilder EV market with the necessary and appropriate safeguards.”

After the company finishes JdeMO testing, which is currently underway with nine RAV4s, Williams believes the same system will work on the other EVs designed by Tesla, including the Roadster, Model S, and Mercedes B-Class ED. “From there, we’ll probably move on to the BMW i3, which is the most popular car without a widespread fast charging solution,” said Williams. Although the i3 is sold in the US with SAE’s CCS Fast Charging port as an option, Williams believes that so far few buyers have opted in, because only a handful of CCS chargers currently exist. “Let’s say you live in Oregon or Washington State, which have only a couple CCS chargers but a hundred CHAdeMO chargers - you wouldn’t buy the CCS option on the i3.”

Williams suspects that a large chunk of RAV4 owners will be interested in a CHAdeMO upgrade, “because that car is a whole new world with the CHAdeMO plug on it. It’s going to be completely orphaned by Toyota, since they’ve discontinued it, but the people who own the car really love it.”

brothers are now focused on the company full-time.

This year will bring a marketing push for the newest products, partnership discussions for rebranding and wholesaling, and the continual development of what’s next.

The path from EV enthusiast to entrepreneur has led Quick Charge Power into an EVSE market with competition from a number of giant international conglomerates. To succeed, the company will have to continue to do what it does best: immerse itself in the grass-roots EV culture and deliver products that improve the experience of the everyday driver.

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Charging into your

home ChargePoint’s CEO on the design of the newest residential EVSE

By Michael Kent

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I

n January 2009, ChargePoint installed its first charging station in downtown San Jose, California. Five years later, the company is the king of the charging networks and boasts over 20,000 charging spots in North America.

The company has a staggeringly high attach rate for new plug-in vehicle drivers. Somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of all new buyers sign up for an account. And ChargePoint says that its huge market share continues to grow, as stations are more pervasively deployed - with growth both in terms of new driver attach rates and existing drivers that sign up down the road.

With a clear stronghold in the public realm, ChargePoint has turned its sights to your garage wall. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2015, it announced a new residential product, appropriately named ChargePoint Home.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of all new plug-in vehicle buyers sign up for a ChargePoint account.

Charged caught up with CEO Pasquale Romano for more details.

Images courtesy of ChargePoint

Charged: There are many different options for residential Level 2 charging stations, and ChargePoint is predominantly known for its large public network. Tell us about the timing of ChargePoint Home. Why launch it now?

Pasquale Romano: As a company, you have to pick where you spend your time and money. We felt that the biggest impediment to people buying plug-in vehicles was a lack of public infrastructure.

So we focused on that bigger problem. As we all know in this industry, if we can’t get more people driving EVs, the rest of it doesn’t really matter. We wanted to get to the point where the market was well developed and stable before we expanded our development efforts into the home.

About a year ago we decided to embark on a big home development project. In the long run, we think it’s absolutely necessary to be in all segments, because we always look at things from the perspective of the EV driver. The driver doesn’t want to deal with a different universe of tools and applications when they’re home versus when they’re at work or out shopping. We want to service drivers no matter what they’re doing.

As we all know in this industry, if we can’t get more people driving EVs, the rest of it doesn’t really matter.

over

20,000 ChargePoint spots in North America

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We’re up to about 100 DC fast chargers on our network and climbing pretty fast.

We’re also focused on making sure that we have enough DC fast chargers on the network and in the right locations.

In the DC market, highways are a bit underserved, so we want to make sure we have that covered. We’re up to about 100 DC fast chargers on our network and climbing pretty fast. We would like to get that up significantly.

PR: We’re big believers that everything you plug your car into should be connected to a cloud network service, whether it’s a competitor or us. We want to leverage the fact that everything ChargePoint makes is connected. So, you’ll get all of your charging reports in one place so you see how much energy you use at home and how much you use when you’re not home. You’ll see it all on one convenient dashboard, and one mobile app on your phone. These network services are free and included with the product. We’re not going to charge you a monthly fee.

Just buy the product and it’s connected.

We’ve also focused on all the little convenience features that make this thing awesome. It’s super easy to set up the WiFi from your mobile phone. How you ever forgotten to plug in your car and then woken up in the morning in a cold sweat? We’re going to have auto-reminder features that will tell you when you forgot. And because it’s connected to your WiFi, we can even warn you on your phone if your home network goes down or your password is changed. When the ChargePoint mothership sees that it’s not connected to the charger anymore, we can still send you a text message.

We’re going to do some great things with scheduled charging, that are well beyond what cars do now. You can schedule things to flexibly reflect how you use your car on weekends versus during the week and how your utility rates may change. You can optimize not only for your lifestyle but your electric bill.

There is also the option for integration with Nest’s

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Image courtesy of ChargePoint

Charged: How will the ChargePoint Home integrate with your current platform?

We’re big believers that everything you plug your car into should be connected to a cloud network service, whether it’s a competitor or us. home automation products. We are going to make sure we’re connected to the kinds of things in your house that are relevant, and the platform will continue to expand.

Charged: Tell us about your strategy for designing the hardware. How is it different from other products on the market?

PR: It’s super-sleek. A small footprint, high capacity and just well designed. We haven’t announced pricing yet,

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of constraints on where I can put a charger on my garage wall. but it’s going to be very cost-competitive out of the gate.

And it will have interchangeable cords, which will be a huge cost advantage long term. The cords will be offered in lengths of 12, 18, or 25 feet, and rated for 16 or 32 amps.

You can pick the right length for your garage. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of constraints on where I can put a charger on my garage wall. There are cabinets, bicycles and all kinds of other stuff. And every time a new EV comes out, they put the connector in a different spot, so there’s no optimal place for the charger. You really need flexibility in the cable. So the base unit is always the same and can provide current up to 32 A. It auto-detects the cable and provides the right power.

You can upgrade the cable at any time. Let’s say you have a Prius Plug-in. ‘I don’t want to spend the extra money on a high-amperage cable, I just want to buy a 16 A cable.’ Then you go from a Prius Plug-in to a Tesla Model S. ‘Now I want 32 A, and the hatch is on the other side of the car, so I want a longer cable.’ It turns out that the cost of the cable relative to the unit is high because there’s so much copper in it. It’s just a fact of life when

16 32 or

amps

12, 18, 25 or

feet of cable

Ports-to-car ratio: residential versus commercial

You may have noticed that just about every electrical supply equipment manufacturer thrust into the home charging business as the EV market developed over the last few years. However, only a handful stuck their toes into the networked-publiccharging pond - and some quickly decided that the water was too cold to swim in, and scaled back their efforts. That’s because the potential volume in the residential sphere (both single-family and multipleunit) is much higher. The residential market offers the possibility of selling one charger per vehicle, or maybe even two - some European brands offer a pair of chargers with each car, one for work and one for home.

Currently, the total number of plug-in vehicles in the US is about 280,000, and, presumably, the number of installed residential, and other non-networked, Level 2 chargers is somewhere approaching that number, at a 1-to-1 ratio. On the other hand, there are about 28,500 commercial networked ports in the US, a ratio of around 10-to-1.

The percentage of BEV and PHEV buyers that install Level 2 charging at home varies a bit, but many believe the numbers will merge as they trend closer to one residential EVSE for every plug-in vehicle.

“With PHEVs, there’s a larger percentage of people that are only using the Level 1 travel cord, but it’s changing,” said Romano. “I think eventually, almost everyone that can put a Level 2 in their home, will.

Once you’ve tried one, you can’t live without it.”

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Nest wants to use every possible indicator of presence detection, and one of the easiest is when you just rolled into your garage and plugged your car in.

78

colors to give you an idea of what state the charger is in.

It’s all these little features that make the ChargePoint Home awesome. The reason the Nest thermostat is so great is that they’ve paid attention to all the little things.

That’s what we’re doing with the mobile app features, the reminders, the scheduled charging, the reports in one spot, the selectable cable, etc. You can even install the same unit with a range plug or by hardwiring it. It’s really flexible.

Charged: What are the benefits of working with Nest?

PR: Nest wants to use every possible indicator of presence detection, and one of the easiest is when you just rolled into your garage and plugged your car in. So at a minimum we’re going to be another source of presence detection for a Nest environment in your house.

With Nest Protect, if the thermostat senses a fire in your home or anther power emergency, ChargePoint Home will automatically shut down.

Both Nest and ChargePoint are looking at the future of home energy management, [and we’ll be able to] communicate with each other, especially during times of high demand on the grid. Nest’s Rush Hour Rewards Program encourages users to reduce their electricity usage during hours of peak demand.

When an electric utility sends Nest a signal to reduce energy usage, Nest will communicate to ChargePoint Home to slow down the amount of power Home is pushing to your car. This helps to prevent excess grid load and avoids charging EV drivers when electricity is at its most expensive. Of course, the user can opt out if they want to continue receiving full power from ChargePoint Home.

In the future, should Nest, or any company, begin to do more things with energy management, we will be able to integrate with that too.

Image courtesy of Nest

you’re buying a big heavy copper cable. So, if you only need a short cable with 16 A capability, we can ship that and it’s far less expensive than a long one rated for 32 A. The base unit is very small. We could have made it smaller, but felt that it would be cumbersome, because you need a place to hang the cord. The body of the unit is really limited by being a convenient place to store the cord.

The coupler is plugged into the sphere in the center of unit. It swivels so you can find a comfortable angle depending upon how tall you are and how high you mount it on the wall. It swivels down and hangs the handle out of the way. The sphere is also backlit, and glows in different

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

We’re thrilled with the way the market has developed, and that comment is tempered by the fact that we’re also very practical.

Image courtesy of ChargePoint

new models that are going to be coming out. It will give drivers many more options. There are a lot of folks that would buy an EV, except there is no option that fits their budget, or their needs, or aesthetics. Now they are getting more and more options, and we think that’s going to be a huge accelerant. We also think that people are starting to trust that it’s a mainstream technology. It’s proven. It’s moving to mass market very quickly, and we’re super-excited about 2015. I think it will be a watershed year for the industry.

Even though we make great hardware, we spend most of our time and effort trying to make the software supersimple, very usable and well integrated with things people use in their house.

We’re primarily a software company. Even though we make great hardware, we spend most of our time and effort trying to make the software super-simple, very usable and well integrated with things people use in their house.

The goal is to bring our drivers a lot of value.

Charged: How do you feel about the way the EV market has developed in the past few years?

PR: We’re thrilled with the way the market has developed, and that comment is tempered by the fact that we’re also very practical. It takes a long time to develop a lot of different models of plug-in vehicles. It’s not a simple thing to design. We’re most excited about the number of

Charged: Do you think low gas prices will have a noticeable effect on EV adoption?

PR: It’s too early to call. There was a decline in EV sales in the last couple of months, but it fell in proportion to the decline in overall auto sales. People are just buying fewer cars for the last couple months, we don’t know why.

The BEV/PHEV mix has shifted slightly more towards BEVs in the last several months, and we’re speculating that’s people waiting for the new Chevy Volt. They know it’s coming, so there are some Volt buyers sitting on the sidelines. It’s going to be a great car.

Right now we don’t see any relationship between falling gas prices and reduced EV penetration, just based on the statistics that we have today. And we think that when the new Volt comes out we’ll have a nice pop in sales from the backlog of buyers on the sidelines. There are other great models that are coming out as well.

Now it’s a drivetrain choice. It’s not so much about economics, because people understand that while gas prices are low now, over the life of your car, what’s the likelihood that they stay down? It’s not very likely. People are smarter now. They trust EVs. In the long term, buyers are starting to understand that driving electric is just a better way to drive.

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Image courtesy of Argonne National Labs

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

THE

INTEROPERABILITY

BY MARKKUS ROVITO

OLYMPICS At Argonne National Labs, the pursuit of greater compatibility between DC fast charger EVSE and EVs connected some dots between industry standards and industry stalwarts.

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merica’s first national lab, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), has always been steeped in the purpose of discovering and developing sustainable energy sources for promoting national security and prosperity. While the United States fought World War II on two fronts in 1942, Enrico Fermi’s work with the Manhattan Project spawned the precursor to ANL in an inner-city Chicago facility to create the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

Soon after, the laboratory was moved to a safer location 25 miles outside of Chicago and named Argonne after the forest surrounding it. Then in 1946 the post-war Atomic Energy Commission designated Argonne as the first national laboratory, tasked with developing the country’s peaceful pursuit of nuclear electricity. It was at Argonne-West in Idaho in 1951 that the world’s first nuclear-generated electricity brought a modest string of four light bulbs to illumination.

Now, more than 60 years later, ANL boasts 15 research divisions, 12 centers and 5 national scientific user

A

82

It was natural that we’d be called in to try to help out with [the CCS] standard. facilities that host 3,400 full-time employees and more than 6,500 facility users. Its budget last year was $760 million, and it is only one of the 17 national laboratories overseen by the Department of Energy (DOE).

Standard setter Argonne approaches its mission of finding scientific and engineering solutions to sustainable energy, a healthy environment and national security from many angles.

Its facilities include a Center for Nanoscale Materials, supercomputers, a particle accelerator for studying the nucleic phenomena of atoms and many operations in

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Images courtesy of Argonne National Labs

We assumed there would be maybe a couple of vendors bringing small little boards, but it blossomed into this international event.

The numbers: Argonne National Laboratory

60 more than

years since designated the first national lab

15

research divisions

the area of electric mobility. Argonne’s Transportation Technology R&D Center models and simulates advanced electric powertrains, engines, batteries and biofuels. ANL’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research and Advanced Battery Materials Synthesis and Manufacturing R&D Program work on making the smart grid - including seamless interaction with plug-in cars and renewable energy sources - a reality.

However, the lab doesn’t put the cart before the horse.

In addition to all of its forward-thinking research, ANL participates very much in the here and now of vehicle electrification. The envisioned smart grid will need widespread fast charging for electric vehicles, as well as fast charging infrastructure that works regardless of the EV’s make and model, just as any brand of toaster you buy in America will plug into your kitchen outlets. To that end, ANL works on the interoperability of EVSE and EVs. Lab personnel often assist with the development of standards that govern such interoperability.

“We’re very much involved with the drafting of these standards codes, therefore helping develop these harmonized communication protocols that enable these markets to thrive,” said Glenn Keller, Senior Project Management Specialist at Argonne’s EV Smart Grid Interoperability Center.

The most recent DC Fast Charging standard that’s growing in adoption, SAE J1772 Combo - aka Combined Charging System (CCS) or just SAE Combo combines AC charging and DC Fast Charging on one plug. Many North American and German automakers have adopted CCS, including the Volkswagen Group, which in January said that all its future plug-in vehicles will support DC Fast Charging with CCS. The Combo standard is just over two years old. “It was natural that we’d be called in to try to help out with that standard and mature that standard,” Keller said.

A fair of the state Part of that maturation process involves the updating of other communication protocol standards that work with SAE J1772 to include DC Fast Charging for the CCS standard. So as part of that effort, the Interoperability Center held a “Testival” last November 13-14 at ANL to pair up as many DC Fast Charging stations and charger emulators with as many PEVs or vehicle emulators as possible to test their interoperability. The event prompted a greater response than expected, drawing more than 30 EVSE manufacturers and automotive OEMs from at least eight countries.

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I think we had every production vehicle that has a CCS inlet on it, and we had 6 or 7 fast chargers.

3400 6500 full-time employees

facility users

“The whole point to the event was the CCS communication controller testing,” said Jason Harper, Electrical Engineer at the Interoperability Center. “It was only going to be communications controllers to begin with, but we opened that up to actual plug-in electric vehicles, as well as DC fast chargers. We assumed there would be maybe a couple of vendors bringing small little boards, but it blossomed into this international event. I think we had every production vehicle that has a CCS inlet on it, and we had 6 or 7 fast chargers. Companies actually

84

It’s the little things Harper said that they didn’t find any examples of incompatibility between one company that followed the ISO or DIN spec and another company that followed the SAE spec. “It was quite surprising that we didn’t find any totally un-interoperable pairings,” Harper said.

“They’re very complicated standards - like 200-page documents that cover everything, so implementations can vary greatly. I assumed that a lot of these people coming in would plug in or connect their boards, and they would not work at all. That’s not to say that we had 100% interoperability, but for the most part, every pairing set up a communication session and charged if there

Images courtesy of Argonne National Labs

The numbers: Argonne National Laboratory

shipped their real fast chargers here to participate, and over 15 companies had communication controllers and brought boards.”

Like all of the Interoperability Center’s EV work, the Testival was funded by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. The event included DC Fast Charging CCS systems from IES/Bosch, Siemens, BTCP and others, as well as VW and Toyota plug-in vehicles and a BMW i3 and Chevy Spark EV, which were already at Argonne. All the equipment and controller boards were tested in a “round-robin” fashion, where each fast charger was paired with each vehicle, and each electric vehicle communication controller (EVCC) was paired with each supply equipment communication controller (SECC).

The CCS system covers three fast-charging standards: ISO/IEC 15118, DIN 70121 and SAE J2847/2. “ISO/IEC 15118 is a global standard, but the majority who follow it are European - it’s actually the digital communication messages for both DC and AC charging,” Harper said.

“But a lot of the automotive OEMs didn’t want to wait for that to be published; they wanted to get started on DC Fast Charging, so DIN created DIN 70121, which is the DC messaging portion of the 15118 standard. Then SAE came along wanting to make it their own, so it harmonized with DIN70121, but uses the number J2847/2.”

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

It was quite surprising that we didn’t find any totally un-interoperable pairings

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was an actual vehicle, or at least went through the entire communication session. There were a few hiccups here and there, but with their developers in attendance, they could change their code in real time, recompile and test again.”

There was one non-production vehicle that had intermittent problems with initializing a session when plugged in. “They were at best at the prototype stage,” Harper said. “That’s why they came, because they didn’t have anything to test with.”

Other problems that the Testival helped to expose had to do with ambiguities within the CCS specifications. For example, before any high voltage exists at the CCS connector, the vehicle must lock the connector to its inlet. However, the spec didn’t say the connector couldn’t lock the instant it plugs in, which means that if a customer’s credit card wasn’t authorized or some other mishap meant a charging session wasn’t started, the customer could be left with the connector locked to the inlet without charging for an untold period of time. The exposure to so many charging systems helped OEMs discover such nuances and work to correct them.

Global connections Harper noted that his group at Argonne helped develop, chair and lead author the SAE J2953 standard for interoperability between EVs and EVSE, so they will update the standard to cover the lessons learned from the Testival. Its results will also help them define international interoperability test procedures. There may

86

even be another testing event with European partners after the launch of a European Interoperability Center this summer, as part of the joint agreement between the DOE and the European Commission. That agreement includes working on vehicle and battery testing procedures, as well as interoperability.

“The governments’ role is to support the national mission to further electrify the vehicle fleet,” said Keith Hardy, Director of ANL’s EV Smart Grid Interoperability Center. “These things need to be standardized between countries and continents to make this work. It’s also become a free-trade issue. You cannot really have free trade if you have different standards, because I can use that as an invisible barrier to trade by just having a different standard.”

Hardy hopes that by the time the European facility opens later in the year, ANL will have a common set of interoperability requirements, and a prototype tool for testing those requirements. “The DC test tool has become an international effort,” he said.

Harper described the test tool as some configuration of a communication controller board, a connector inlet and some type of load or DC source. He built his own test setup using a large Aerovironment ABC-170 dualchannel, high-voltage DC power supply that can emulate a DC fast charger as well as an EV battery. With this setup Harper can test both CCS-enabled PEVs as well as DC fast chargers.

“Interoperability is basically taking two compliant devices and testing them together. If they work, then they’re interoperable,” Harper said. “The worst thing is you can have two compliant devices that are not interoperable. Then you have a really big issue. That means your standard’s bad; there’s gaps in your standard. And just because an EV might be interoperable - it charges with a certain charger - it might not be compliant. You might run into issues down the road where another charger is implemented differently and then it isn’t in-

Images courtesy of Argonne National Labs

The worst thing is you can have two compliant devices that are not interoperable.

Then you have a really big issue.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

The numbers: Argonne National Laboratory

$760 1 last year’s budget was

million

only

of 17 national laboratories

teroperable. That comes back to where the vehicle wasn’t compliant to begin with, and that’s why we test both interoperability and compliance.”

Perhaps the biggest - and most satisfying - surprise of the Testival was the interoperability of the participant companies, who helped each other when they weren’t required or incentivized to. “A representative from GM said he’d never been to an event where all the manufac-

They will update the standard to cover the lessons learned from the Testival. turers were so open and so willing to work together,” Harper explained. “In the end, they’re only helping the industry and their companies by working together, and I think that’s something that he’d never been a part of in other areas of the industry. So that was great to see everyone come together and work towards a common goal, share information, share their designs and implementations. That was surprising.”

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ACT Expo ............................................. 16 actexpo.com

Fleet Carma ........................................ 67 fleetcarma.com

Quick Charge Power ........................... 39 quickchargepower.com

Aerovironment ................................... 25 avinc.com

Fuji Electric ......................................... 92 americas.fujielectric.com

SAE ...................................................... 12 sae.org/hybridev

Arbin Instrument ................................ 37 arbin.com

International Battery Seminar .............. 8 internationalbatteryseminar.com

TĂœV SĂœD America ............................... 89 ChargedEVs.com/Whitepapers

Bitrode ................................................ 11 bitrode.com

Interplex ....................................... 15, 89 interplex.com

TeslaMotorsBook.com ........................ 41 teslamotorsbook.com

ClipperCreek ....................................... 45 clippercreek.com

Lite-On ................................................ 63 liteon.com

UQM .................................................... 19 uqm.com

Electrical Energy Storage ................... 60 ees-northamerica.com

Lord .................................................... 29 lord.com

Wildcat Discovery Technologies ......... 35 wildcatdiscovery.com

To inquire about advertising and sponsorship opportunities visit ChargedEVs.com/Advertise

Download Free Whitepapers Get instant access to whitepapers, webinars, datasheets and more at www.ChargedEVs.com/Whitepapers

What happens when EVs are submerged in seawater?

Seawater Immersion Testing of xEVs

By TÜV SÜD

Which is Better in EV or HEV Powertrains: Induction or PMAC Motors?

Is your xEV immune f salt water intrusion?

TÜV SÜD laboratories are equipped to test xEVs and to the latest standards and requirements. More rece series of tests were conducted to understand the po of recycling xEVs following saltwater intrusion.

Find out more www.tuv-sud-america.com/battery-service

Comparing AC Induction with Permanent Magnet Motors in Hybrid Vehicles and the Impact on the Value Proposition

By Parker Hannifin

Can Power Module Packaging Efficiency Be Improved?

Enabling Next-Gen Power Applications With Improved Packaging Efficiency

By Interplex

The UNPLUGGED Project

TÜV SÜD America 10 Centennial Drive, Pea (800) 888-0123 info@tuvam.com www.tu

Improving EV Driving Experiences with Wireless Technology

By ENIDE

Available at www.ChargedEVs.com/Whitepapers

Bolt Chevy

points to a

new generation of

Photos by Mark Mastropietro

plug-ins

By Charles Morris

introduced two potentially historic vehicles at the recent auto show in Detroit. After months of hints about a 200-mile EV in the pipeline, CEO Mary Barra herself introduced the Bolt concept with a lavish sound-and-light show.

Many in the media are convinced that a range of 200 miles and a price tag below $40,000 are the magic numbers that will make EVs truly competitive with ICE vehicles (whatever that means, exactly). That’s why the Bolt is such a big deal - its coming-out party was widely covered in the mainstream press, while here in the EV-sphere, we’re scrambling for every available detail.

At this point, there are a lot of questions, and most of the answers are coming from secondary and/ or unnamed sources. We now know more or less what the Bolt will look like, we know that it’s being developed on GM’s Gamma platform, and that GM hopes to have it on the road in early 2017.

We also know that nobody outside of GM seems to like the name. The rest of the story will surely be filled in little by little over the next couple of years.

Of course, it’s a long road from admiring a concept car at a show to plugging in one in your garage. But GM is already moving ahead with production plans. “The message from consumers was clear and unequivocal: Build it,” said GM North America President Alan Batey in a press release. “We are moving quickly because of its potential to completely shake up the status quo for electric vehicles.”

There’s little doubt about the company’s technical ability to hit the desired 200-mile number. GM’s battery provider LG Chem said some months ago that it would be making cells for a 200-mile EV in 2016.

Whether the Bolt will be built in more than “compliancecar quantities” is unpredictable at this point. One source said that GM plans to produce only a few thousand per year, but another cited an annual production target of 25,000-30,000

GM

(the Volt sold 18,800 in 2014). John Voelcker of Green Car Reports, for one, is skeptical of the company’s ability to make a profit at the touted price point. Automakers’ EV ambitions tend to wax and wane from one year to the next, so who knows how the market will look to GM in 2017?

It may be looking a bit crowded. The very day after Barra’s star turn, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn reminded us that a new LEAF is due in about two years, with at least double its current range. “We are the leaders and we frankly intend to continue to be the leaders,” said Ghosn.

And of course, the punditocracy immediately started sizing up the Bolt as a competitor for Tesla’s Model 3, which is said to be planned to be hopefully getting ready to perhaps go on the market around the same time as the Bolt.

BMW, Mercedes, VW and Kia all have new models in the electric hatchback segment. If any or all of these companies are serious about cars with cords, they’ll be upping the range of their offerings in a couple of years as well. And Ford may not choose to be left out of the 200-mile club.

We did say two historic vehicles. Amid all the hoopla about the Bolt, let’s not forget the new Volt (see page 38). With a substantially better 50-mile electric range, a redesigned body, and improvements meant to address the most common customer complaints, this is definitely a next-generation vehicle. So much so that it seems to have decimated demand for the current Volt.

For the moment, GM has declared itself king of both the pure electric and plug-in hybrid hills. As battery technology improves and consumer acceptance of EVs grows, there’ll be several contenders vying to push it off - and that’s just the sort of healthy competition that the auto industry needs.

We are moving quickly because of its potential to completely shake up the status quo for electric vehicles.

NAFA2015 Institute & Expo W W W. N A F A I N S T I T U T E . O R G

THOUSANDS OF YOUR PEERS are coming together

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NAFA’s Institute & Expo April 14-17 Orlando, FL

NAFA’s International Fleet Academy April 13-17 Now co-located with I&E!

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Grocerie

s

Bread Milk

Apples

o *Need t Car Charge

Give customers what they need ...

Starting in the parking lot.

Fuji Electric’s DC Quick Charger is ideal for use in commercial environments such as retail stores, parking lots, and workplace charging. EV owners rely on public charging for their daily routines, so whether you're a station owner looking to offer a value-added service for your customers, an employer seeking an on-site charging option for employees, or a local integrator looking to differentiate themselves with new solutions, Fuji Electric is the right fit for you.

For more information please visit our web-site: www.americas.fujielectric.com

Fuji Electric Corp. of America www.americas.fujielectric.com lbutkovich@fecoa.fujielectric.com