Seven Major Automakers Agree to a Universal Charging System For Electric Cars

huh. boy, that was quick.

why learn from your own mistakes, when you could learn from the mistakes of others?

This needed to be quick. With cell phones etc, universal chargers could be fully implimented within a couple years because that's as long as cell phones last. But with something like a car where you expect at least a 10 year lifespan, any cars made pre-unifying would be out of luck as far as charge on the go (electricity station) without an adapter.
It was in everyone's best interest to universalize this.

Let the Betamax-VHS wars begin. The real question is how fast can you charge with the one that is getting international approval??? Nissan claims to have a 500 volt charging system on the drawing boards that can charge the leaf in 10 minutes.

Ron Bennett

Why isn't anyone talking about the lightning car company? It goes 225 miles on a single charge! goes 0-100 in under 5 seconds. And charges in 10 min! They created this years ago! Just think if that car had only 100hp instead of 500hp it probably could go 600 miles on a single charge! The technology is out there! We just need to mass produce it.

dcrosenthal: Were you trying to say the Tesla Roadster? (and now Tesla Model S)

If so, your numbers are off all over the place.

244 mile EPA ( which favors gas engines. Some people have gotten in excess of 300 miles )

0-60 is 3.7 sec for the more powerful version. Being electric, the acceleration is close to continuous so that would be 0-100 in about 6.2 seconds. ( Which is pretty fast, with a top speed of 125 mph.)

288hp, not 500.

Here's the killer though: It uses standard Li-Ion batteries, so charge time is 3.5 HOURS using the high-power wall charger, and something like 12 hours for the portable charger that plugs into a standard outlet.

That...and it cost over $100,000.

The newer model s is a lot cheaper at $50,000 but it also loses out on a lot of those numbers.

It's a good step in the right direction, unlike all of those other fake attempts at an electric car ( Leaf, Volt, etc...I'm looking at you. ), but it is also a ways away from being anything but an exotic car. Great for someone with 4 other cars and wads of cash to toss around.

Heck, even with Nissans new batteries, that'd still be long on the charge time. Leaf is 24kw-h battery vs. the roadsters 53kw-h. That's a little more than double, so you're looking at 22 minutes to fill'er up. That's assuming that the Nissans new battery has the same energy density. (Something of interest that should be noted: If you do the math, you'll notice something funny. The far higher performance Roadster actually uses LESS power. About 1/3 less.)

Unfortunately, we are just in desperate need for a new battery technology. Thankfully, cell-phones are tearing up current batteries: As such, huge amounts of money is being dumped into battery research. These would transfer over nicely to the electric car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_roadster
http://www.teslamotors.com/

Thank you manufacturers. We have far bigger fish to fry than worrying about what the plug will look like. Sure beats a consortium coming together to committify it.

rlb2,

I'll believe a 10 minute charge when I see it-and I will be observing it from a considerable distant. Pushing 24Kwh of power into a Li-Ion battery battery in 10 minutes is pretty scary if you crunch the numbers. If I recall correctly;

Voltage current = power

energy = power * time

There fore

To charge 24Kwh in 10 minutes is going to require 288 amps at 500 volts (not considering losses). 24kwh is about 2 days house hold power consumption for me.

I agree, not sure if 10 minute charging will work (maybe at electric stations, but not at home thats for sure).

In any case my favorite part about the electric car is the idea of having more individual power in the electric grid. If you can sell back to the grid from your electric car at peak hours, and buy electricity to charge it at the hours of lowest rate, then it will help to increase our electricity supply and prevent shortages by creating a more robust system of power distribution.

What I really want to see tried in the auto industry is to stick Bloom Box technology (scaled down of course) in a car to charge the battery.

cholin3947 wrote - "I'll believe a 10 minute charge when I see it-and I will be observing it from a considerable distant."

rlb2 reply - check it out for yourself. "Nissan says it has developed a 10-minute charge for electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf"

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/2011/10/10/2011-10-10_nissan_develops_10minute_electric_car_charger_.html

"The breakthrough has come through a research partnership with Japan's Kansai university, and involves charging an electrode in the capacitor from carbon to tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide. This allowed the battery of the Leaf to be charged in about ten minutes with no impact on battery life or reliability. That's big, big news."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/idUS410546558520111013

Ron Bennett

i am impressed i would never think that they would work together on something realizing that the consumer will buy the car they like regardless on the type of charger they use. On top of that now you can have charging stations that any car can use... this will increase the possibility of a company that can instal a universal charger, and wont have to worry about what kind of car you have. congrats to the car companies for not being greedy and stupid.

New battery technology is here!!!

The poster stated correctly that the car, Lighting GT goes 225 miles on a single charge! 0-60 in under 5 seconds, and charges in 10 min!

The car is using a different kind of battery with non technology.

It's call the NanoSafe battery made by Altairnano, Inc. which is a leader in advanced nano materials and alternative energy solutions. http://bit.ly/onm16T

Lightning Car Company is already using this technology in its car, and the battery is made in the US in Nevada. http://bit.ly/n7vv1P

Why on earth aren't the major car companies implementing this new battery technology is anyone's guess. It may be a price point, but surely if there's enough demand, the price should drop accordingly.

THIS is the kind of battery that ALL EV's should be using currently since this battery has been around for several years.

I want my Ford Focus EV with the NanoSafe battery in it; now please, and in white!

I'd get the Lighting GT, but the price tag I'm not ready to dish out over $100K for a car, made in Britain.

thats all great in theory..but reality is different. ALL electric vehicles arent even available

smell of burning gasoline, oil & good old vibrations from a powerfull engine

miam

BWM

“…….They also announced support for HomePlug Green PHY, which despite its silly name is a pretty cool idea: it allows you to link your car to the smart grid using Powerline, which allows all kinds of useful goodies like diagnostic system checks…..”

This sounds great on the surface. Perhaps my auto manufacture will remotely do a computer diagnostic check of the engine, electric, batteries of my car and give me an email of potential problems. As long as they do not become like my local oil change business with every oil change they push to sell me an air filter, windshield wipers, etc., that does not need replacement. Still, I like pre warning of upcoming bills and maintenance.

If we do the life expectancy of an electric motor side by side a combustible engine, the electric motor wins hands down on not wearing out as quick. I like to see our autos move away from combustible fuels and I can see nationally common ground has to be establishing in charging electric and hybrid electric vehicles. If enough of the big boy auto manufactures agree with a standard, it will force overseas manufactures to adapt to the market or simply loose the market. I want clean want a cleaner environment, less noise, more reliable car to get me about.

Oh, I did leave out; I feel it kind of creepy of my car being attaché to the internet with all the hackers and viruses. Imagine you get into your car and the computer just dies as you merge into traffic or the acceleration continues without your control? Imagine what you see on your instrument display is actual false to what is actually going on from your car? This could develop into a life threaten situation.

Since my car will be connected to the internet, if its electronics is hacked or acquires a virus, who is financial responsible for my car and occupants of the car from hacking and a virus? Will I have to buy a antivirus protection software from my car with additional auto insurance too? If my home computer does not come on, I do not have the fear of death. But as I jump into my car and it has been hacked or received a virus, now my reliable transportation may have a hidden bomb in it of sorts. CREEPY!

Sometime in the future we read in the local news: “Political So-n-So, just dies in an auto accident" and Political So-n-So last words in the auto were posted on the web, just prior to his death. It has been suggested his car could have had been hacked or had a virus. Investigations are still going on, details at your local news at 10pm.”

Kind of brings a whole new futuristic way of world terrorist or government espionage and\or assignation.

I hope they include other modifications as well. A grid that turns the old power line broadband concept, and failed home electric networks into mobile billing for cars. Then, every plug can be used as a fueling station, and bill only the owner of the vehicle. Smart batteries in cars that can be used as grid storage for solar and wind energies.

More corrosive resistant engine tubing that allow for alternate fuels in hybrids. Plug hybrids whose batteries reduce the number of alternate fueling stations needed to introduce fuels like E85, and natural gas.

I hope the quick charge by Nissan is true and feasible, but if it is not we can still do it. Heat produced in quick charges can be liquid cooled. Then the coolant flushed out of the vehicle with air and back into the fueling station leaving the vehicle light. Heat cameras in the building monitor, and communicate with the vehicle to control the cooling and charging process. Hopefully we could have charges that take tens of minutes and give a hundreds of miles range with today’s existing technologies.

Will Popsci confirm or clarify the report, on September 30, 2011 Dr Xie Xian Ning, from the National University of Singapore that it has solved the battery problem with a future product that will be ten times cheaper than current lithium Ion batteries and half the weight. How durable are the batteries? How quickly do they charge? Is the electric vehicle batter problem solved?

tmarti69m
I applaud you request for a confirmation. I respect and I hope they listen to your own request. I see often they are not shy of repeating past articles. I like for them to repeat this subject matter with more confirmation of the Nissan battery and the questions of tmart69. Thank you.

@ Grunt: unlike a lot of commenters that post stuff that's entirely unintelligible, you have a curious tendency to leave off the last letter or letters of longer words you type: "manufacturer" (manufacture... four times) "threatening" (threaten), "attached" (attache), and others. Otherwise, you have intelligent comments, and I like what you have to say.

As for your concern of cars with viruses suddenly stopping on the freeway or in other dangerous situations, realize that's not a problem limited to electric vehicles-- every car I've had for many years has had increasingly complex programs to control their air/fuel ratios, idle speeds, etc., and if viruses in cars were a significant problem, we'd have found out about it by now. In fact, even though EVs are completely controlled by electronics whereas fueled vehicles are partly mechanical, the controls EVs need are far simpler than those needed to make internal combustion engines run as clean as they must-- oxygen sensors, catalytic converters, spark advance systems, air/fuel regulators, etc.

And the EV electronics you mention, such as for interfaces to a smart grid, would be easier to isolate to keep them from interfering with the car's operation while being driven-- much easier than the electronics that ICE cars require for proper function.

Car makers don't want any of their vehicles becoming liabilities for any reason, the way Ford Pintos were decades ago, or the way Toyotas were more recently with their sticking gas pedals. Onboard digital recorders on the Toyotas proved later that the vast majority of reported problems were fraudulent claims by drivers trying to capitalize on the notoriety, and that has made all car makers much more vigilant to keep their vehicles trouble-free and fail-safe.

Despite their newness on the automotive market, EVs have already proven safer on the road than ICE cars: in standard crash tests, the battery-powered cars such as the Volt and Leaf fared better than fueled cars in every respect-- side impact, rear impact, front impact, rollover, etc. It is nearly impossible to get batteries used in production EVs to explode or catch fire.

Some batteries, such as those with nanotinanate, as used in the Lightning EV "Pop This" mentioned above, will not catch fire or explode regardless of overcharging, crushing, piercing, or being exposed to open flames. The same cannot be said of ICE cars with their vulnerable gas tanks. EVs and their batteries are still in their infancy; you can be sure they will continue to become cheaper, better, safer and more popular with time, and I feel certain they will replace ICE cars before long due to rising gas prices, the low cost of operation of EVs, their utter simplicity, quietness, reliability, and more.

Bill Dale

With a computer smart car, suddenly it can be turned off should the owner fall to fall behind in payments. And if a good hack comes about, the same result could happen too.

And if you driving down the road and see those flashing red and blue lights of the police you will hear in your speaker system to come to a stop and if not your car will gently slow in speed to a stop by the state legal system you are driving in and all conversation being said in your car, has be recorded and used in a court of law against you.

In fact, since a court warrant was put against you or your care, all conversations and tracking of your car has been on gong for a long time.

It is a matter of availability that hacker and virus will take advantage of by being PLUG into the electrical grid constantly for recharging and at the same time be connected to the internet that greatly improves the probability of hacking and virus.

I want my futuristic home vehicle with TWO attachment and clearly design in function. I want power to come from one cord to the wall of my garage and the second cord to be plug to the internet as I personally decide to choose.

For myself, I choose to leave the second cord to be unplugged, unless I suspect my car to be operating poorly and want an update. I then plug my network connection to receive a status of my car; I will then unplug my network from the internet, firmly.

Of course in the future with all network connections being even much faster, I want a antivirus protection system with auto insurance available too.

Oh, what a crazy world we are coming too!!!!!!!

Of course, this does make available the manufactors and government to play havic with my car and my life, on going.
They will do this all for the name of public service and safety.

God bless you all!

@Q The story is not the Nissan story it is “Energy storage membrane set to revolutionize rechargeable batteries.” If it is true then batteries in vehicles will become very affordable. However, Popsci has not given its confirmation yet, and very little details have been released. Is it like a battery and very perishable or, like the nanotube paper battery, a capacitor with a very long life span.

@dquad

lol

billdale,
Thank you for your critique of my comments. I am bad at spelling and grammar. I toss my comment in Microsoft word prior to posting with the hopes to clean it up. Still, I write fast and post my comments fast and so this kills some of my writing too.

I wish others would take at least one step to clean up their comments prior to post, like copy and paste them in word, prior to posting.

I appreciate your comments. Thank you.
................................................

I think that this auto manufactures coming together and starting a standard is great for all of USA!!

WILL i be able to operate this contraption with my eyes closed?

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

This agreement to standardize should facilitate driver adoption of electric vehicles. I would definitely never buy a plug-in EV unless I knew I could plug it in at home, and on the road.

Very excited about electric cars. Gassers stink and are ugly. Hopefully gas engines will be made illegal in ten years.

@JediMindset,
Can you read these words, with your eyes close? lol.

@ zechio

no I was talking about the "Electric car company" google it. It is based out of the UK. And has an amazing car with amazing batteries that far surpas any electric car to date.

@ zechio

"lightning car company" I mean.. I said it right in the first post.. ugg... very tired.. here's the link

http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/Lightning/Lightning.html

Speeding home in your futuristic electric network computerize car, you hear coming over the car’s radio speaker system, “Sir, please pull to the side of the road, this is your local police authority. Failure to slow down to come to a complete stop in 2 minutes, you car will automatically begin slowing down.”

At the moment you hear the voice; naturally you look to your mirror for the police and see none?

More announcements come over your car speakers. “ Sir, yes at this time the police are not there, but we picked up by our automatic radar highway patrol, once you car comes to a complete stop, it will be automatically shut down and you will have to wait for the police to arrive, thank you. “

In a few minutes the police arrive and begin down loading all the details of your driving habits for the last month from the black box hard drive in your car and the police officer reads the chip in your driver’s license remotely too, prior to him even leaving his car and approaching yours.

GOOD LUCK!

The Lightning GT does look really cool. i wonder if they will sell them in the U.S?

@Q,
stop mocking a superior life form you fool.

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

@JediMindset,
Just because you can make a better tin foil hat to block the aliens reading your mind than me, does not make you any better. So there, pltzzzzz!

P.S. Use the shift key now and then and make capitals. Its ok, the aliens still will not find you.

@Q,

lol. tin foil?
i personally use mud like arnold in "Predator".

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

slow and easy is fine for most of us. Why is everyone in such a hurry ? They are missing real life.

I charge in 10 sec. I plug in, go to sleep and the timer in the LEAF comes on at Off Peak 2 AM and charges in 1-2 hours. zzzz all charged up for another day.

can you imagine how much a check engine diagnostic will cost? as it is it ranges usually from $65-$200 just to find out what is wrong with the car, imagine once all of the car is conducted by sensors, mechanic shops will have a huge increase in revenue if they get the proper equipment and certified techs to do so.

I wonder if the new car from Tesla will have this charging unit.