Nissan: Plug in potential sets standards

All future EVs from the collaborating carmakers will be able to use the same type of fast charger. Photo / Supplied

Nissan and Japanese university technicians have reportedly developed new technology that will fully charge batteries in electric vehicles in 10 minutes.

Breakthrough improvements in capacitor technology is leading the automotive industry to a fast-charging standard that will make owning an electric vehicle (EV) easier.

An existing fast-charge standard is so far only applicable to Europe and the United States. Carmakers that have signed up to it include BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen, including VW group brands Audi and Porsche.

The result will be that all future EVs from the collaborating carmakers will be able to use the same type of fast charger, as well as products from other brands that subsequently adopt the standard.

Nissan's development involves a switch from battery technology to capacitor technology.

Reports describe a capacitor that replaces carbon in its electrode with tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide, enabling it to hold more power.

Under testing, the capacitor could reportedly be fully charged in just 10 minutes while offering almost the same energy-storage capacity and voltage as a lithium-ion battery. However, it is expected to take 10 years for the technology to become commercially viable, by which time it should help carmakers reduce EV production costs while making them far more appealing to consumers.

Capacitors are already used in micro-hybrid applications such as PSA Peugeot Citroen's e-HDI system, which uses regenerative braking to first store charge in a capacitor before being fed into the conventional 12V battery or used to provide a quick burst of energy to restart the engine after idle-stop has activated.

Nissan has also spearheaded a joint-venture with European electrical supply equipment companies Circutor, DBT, Efacec, Endesa and Siemens that is hoped to grow quick-charge points on the continent through a halving of equipment costs.

In the US, Nissan has recently reduced the price of the home-charging system for customers of its Leaf EV.

In addition to the infrastructure and consumer advantages, manufacturers will benefit from a reduction in complexity when designing vehicles, plus associated economies of scale.

The proposed system must not only feature a standardised charging connector but integrate all possible charging scenarios, much like the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard introduced for computers and other electronic devices in the mid-1990s.

Carmakers using existing Level 1 and Level 2 connectors agree that standardisation increases the public take-up of EVs.

As such, the new system will be backwards-compatible with connector standards in the US and Europe.

Ford vice-president of international government affairs Steve Biegun told Australian website GoAuto that the company understood the importance of providing "technologically innovative solutions that are convenient for our customers".

"It's part of our 'One Ford' vision and a key factor in our company's overall success," he said.

"We applied the same philosophy in working with other global carmakers and governments to offer one common approach on charging electric vehicles - helping speed infrastructure development, strengthen economic growth and, most importantly, make charging even more convenient for our customers."