So. Cal's 1st 480V EV Quick Charger Arrives

It's up & running. Mitsubishi Headquarters in Orange County installed its own brand PV panels, and a 480 Volt quick charger to boot, underneith. It'll be open to the public in just a few days now;



It'll be free to the public for a while. Forward thinking, & unwilling to wait for the lackies at the SAE to decide some day maybe on a quick charge format, technology marches forward!

:rockon::rockon:

 

Daniel I think it turns on how many cars & frequency of charges that are going on at one time. The article I read incicates the charge station can generate over 16kWh DC peak. It doesn't say if the DC is converted to AC, only to then convert back to DC. That would be a waste. In any event, they have levels I & II as well. Here's a bit more of a blurb:

Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Motors Debut Solar-Powered Vehicle Charging Station - Jul 7, 2011

It's only about 5 miles west of where I work (though I normally head south east to go home), so I stopped by their when I got off. When I arrived around 1:45 - there was a media circus being set up - so I sort of got shooed off (very politely though). Security told me I wasn't the 1st leafer to stop by today by any measure. I'm going by there early tomorrow as they gave me the impression I'll be able to charge then. I'll definitely take a few pics if I can snag a few kwh's.

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Fast charging is to get you back on the road, so you can finish your more than 80-ish mile driving trips.
Example:
Let's say you need to drive a 125 mile trip ... at which point you'd be able to recharge (240v) ... so you can then make the return trip (250 miles total round trip). You leave fully charged in the morning, driving 70mph on the freeway ... and drive 1/2 way ... about 62-ish miles. You're down just below 20% on your chargeOmeter because you run the heater and AC.

Pull into the quick charger and take your battery capacity up to 80%-85%. BAM! Guess what - you've impatiently waited a whopping 13.5 minutes or so.

Then - after you complete your trip to grandmas ... or your business is done, 125 miles from home, you drive the return trip ... recharge at the same "quick-charge" stop on the way back ... and recharge later that evening once you get home.
Imaging that. No drama

Earlier news? Well yes, sadly some continue to put a spin on Leaf battery heat as well as its twin sister ... liquid cooling ... as though liquid cooling is some kind of Vodoo magic cure all (when in fact it appears that a decent traction battery that DOESN'T simply over-heat easily, is equally important as your "type" of battery management liquid/air cooling) ... but if you read threads on mynissanleaf.com regarding heat (Arizona summers for example) . . . neither charging nor discharging has lead to ANY traction battery issues. Besides . . . heat from quick charging only becomes an issue when charging above 80%-85% any way. Once the quick charger gets near that range ... it drops back down to a lower input. And to date ... that's the end of leaf battery heat drama stories. No ... I'm certain it'll drone on ... just like the "hummer is better than Prius" fable. As for heat during discharging ... may I direct you to this thread?

http://priuschat.com/forums/ev-elec...1-leaf-shows-well-laguna-seca-race-track.html That's not to say any & all Teslas will over heat faster/more frequently than a Leaf. It's just another example of how well the Leaf traction pack discharges ... as well as re-charges ... so far ... to date ... let the saga continue.

Oh ... and lest I forget to re-address the "Nissan warning" about "continued/daily/multiple" fast charging. They say avoid (NOT to 'never' do multiple) fast charging multiple times per day. In essence they tell owners to use common sense. They tell owners don't be idiots and expect the Leaf to work like a cross country long hauler ... all the time. You'd have to buy the Leaf as a salesman's car ... driving over 100-ish miles one way before multiple/daily quick charging would ever be a hypothetical issue. But every now and then ?? . . . every once in a while ?? Nissan gives its blessing. But if that's the kind of worry that it takes to float one's boat ... carry on ...
hwell:
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Daniel, I know you have multiple EV's so I'm not certain which one you're making reference to. But using L2 charging, the Leaf's Gen I built-in charger draws a max of 16 amps ... then there's charging losses after changing AC power over to DC. I'm not quick enough to do the kWh conversion. The Gen II's on board charger will draw 30 amps. Most quick charge stations typically see less than a half dozen cars per day. So for now, the Mitsubishi charge station will over generate. But since it's grid tied, it won't be an issue down the road. heck - panels keep getting more and more efficient ... and since Mitsubishi used it's "last-years" panels for this install, all they'd have to do is upgrade this charge station to their latest and greatest (23% efficiency vs 16% efficiency) panel, and they'll be good to go.
EDIT:
oh - I almost forgot. No, all those cars can't be fast charged. One at a time. You'd have to wait your turn for 10 or 20 minutes ... turning on when you got there ... how many in front of you, etc ... or use L2 or L1.
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Oh . . . . I see

Anyway, to answer the solar question (does Mitsubishi's array create enough power to prevent grid tied juice usage), no ... if multiple L2 chargers are running there ... and multiple L1 charging is goin' on ... and the quick charging is charging - then grid tied juice would be involve. BUT ... on a similar note - Nissan is setting up a program whereby "spent" traction packs will be used to store PV power (rather than back feed onto the grid) for charging. They're putting four pack together to form the backup. By 'spent', Nissan will get more use out of packs prior to recycling. Nissan finds that their lithium chemestry works well for this purpose, once their Leaf pack's internal resistance affords 50% range or less (not that I wana get into THAT topic again ) ... the used pack can store grid power for several years before the packs then get recycled. Mitsubishi hasn't published if they're considering the same process for their quick charge stations.

 

WOW !!
I was told that once you quick charge ... it's like crack ... you can't ever go back.

Well it WAS pretty awesome, sucking down almost a 40% charge in about 8 minutes. The folks at the Mitsubishi headquarters are unbelievably wonderful ... opening up their charge bays to the competition. Talk about good will! I hope to see all upcoming EV manufacturers show the same graciousness ... and for users to show the same gratitude for the privilege. As I said to the nice host who unlocked the Chademo for me ... that's a mighty big charger you got there:





It was WAY cool to see the PV panels over head, thinking about how the energy was hydrocarbon free, as well as the driving.





Also way cool - the GPS shows new charge spots when ever you plug into a new spot. The CHAdemo icon is different from your run of the mill 240V EVSE's.



MAN ... I was in & out of there so quick ... I didn't even have time to think about it!