Idea: DC fast charger using 50a 240v?

[wallybucks]

It is possible to make a dc fast charger that plugs into 240v at 50A. At this amperage and voltage it is possible to charge at more than 10,000 watts. We all know how fast we can recharge using level 2 using the on-board 3,300 watt Leaf charger. Think how nice it would be to charge over 3 times as fast!

Upgrading power to houses and small bussiness is not easy so why not use of more of the power capacity we already have?
Some ovens, and most central air systems use more power than this already. Since it is common to draw 50 amps at 240v at most home and small business why have I not heard of someone developing such a product? I know it could not be as quick as the ones using 440v 3phase but it would be fast enough for most of us don't you think? Using a charger like this would provide us a 50% charge in a little over an hour.

Most of us wish we could upgrade our Leaf to charge as fast as the 2012 model so why not go for an upgrade that is even faster? If you were smart enough to order the DC charge option on your car you are set up for an aftermarket charger. Is there anyone working on this idea? If not, someone needs to jump on it fast. It would not be that difficult to design and could be less in size and weight than a set of golf clubs you can carry in the trunk. If someone made this at a reasonable price they would sell.

Your thoughts?

 

[fooljoe]

If you search through the forum (try searching for CHAdeMO) you'll see that this has been discussed countless times. In short, the main obstacle is that right now the CHAdeMO connector alone costs something like $6000. Also, even if that problem were solved, it would still be very difficult to make a charger capable of 10kw+ that would be portable, because of cooling requirements and other constraints.

That said, I'm sure we will see something like this sometime, probably just not anytime soon.

 

[KJD]

it would still be very difficult to make a charger capable of 10kw+ that would be portable, because of cooling requirements and other constraints.

Difficult yes but not impossible. Most of this has already been built.

http://www.manzanitamicro.com/products?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=42&category_id=14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The problem that remains is the connector and the interface to make the charger listen to the car.

 

[fooljoe]

I'm familiar with Manzanita, but I'm not sure I'd call 33 pounds and over 20,000cc "portable" (nor is $3650 cheap.) Also, the Manzanita chargers or any other non-isolated chargers won't work. But it's likely true that the charger itself is the "easy" part, it's the proprietary connector and proprietary protocol that present the biggest problem so far.

 

[Volusiano]

So why is the CHAdeMO connector so expensive?

 

[fooljoe]

So why is the CHAdeMO connector so expensive?

It's a closed standard. It hasn't been adopted as a standard in the U.S., which is a big reason why the roll-out of quick-charge stations has been so slow. And that slow roll-out means no economies of scale.

 

[Herm]

I'm familiar with Manzanita, but I'm not sure I'd call 33 pounds and over 20,000cc "portable" (nor is $3650 cheap.) But of course it's true that the charger itself is the "easy" part, it's the proprietary connector and proprietary protocol that present the biggest problem so far.

Its cheap once you consider what they charge for a much simpler L2 EVSE.