We went to see this new Fast Charging Station in Paris

After the opening of this new Fast Charging Station inside Paris on monday, I said we would go check it out, and we passed by this afternoon 

Behind the Tram is ...

this BP gas station with a Fast Charging Station, can you see it ?

A young couple was already there charging their Zoe and the guy got out to tell me that it was not possible to charge two cars together ... oops, anyways I was not there to charge but just take pictures

Gas prices ... should make more people think about switching ... don't you think ?

It was written on the DBT CEV charging station that you have to go to the cashier before doing anything, probably to request an RFid badge to be able to activate the station, and pay 5 EUR if you do not a LEAF, the station being offered by Nissan ...

Thank you Nissan !

Nissan, BP and the City of Paris together for the opening of the First CHAdeMO Fast Charging Station inside the city

Invited by Nissan few days ago, I could not attend this event, but here are some pictures ...

Nissan, BP and the City of Paris gathered today for the opening of the First CHAdeMO Fast Charging Station inside the city




It should be free to Fast Charge your EV there for at least a year, as Nissan charging stations installation plan says: They provide the Charger, and the City and the BP gas station payed for the installation / wiring - which can be more than the cost of the Fast Charger itself -

It is located in a BP gas station, near Peripherique - the "ring" around Paris - at the south Ouest of the city

Check this gas rates out ! and the New EV Charge Sign ! Very cool


This BP station had been well known from the first Electric Car drivers in the mid 90's charging their car there to be able to go back home ...


Even a Tesla Model S was there, using the Type 2 European standard charge port


Chargemap is already referencing it and I stole few pics from their website


Same for the Renault ZOE, with its Type 2 frontal charge port

I could not attend ... Sorry I was working ;-) but I am planning on visiting next week end, this special gas station ...

Some pics stolen from Automobile Propre

IKEA stores now offer CHAdeMO Fast Charging

Going to IKEA's website, I just realized that, after Autolib charging stations, they now have CHAdeMO DC Fast Charging stations

These charging stations are actually the twin DC & AC models from DBT CEV, the French manufacturer, and will provide charging capability to Renault ZOE or any EV using Type 2 / Mennekes standard, which now includes the Tesla Model S in Europe

I will have to go test that Fast Charger with my LEAF when I go there :-)

IKEA website (France)

at the bottom is this picture of an Autolib and a LEAF charging from theses 2 different charging stations

It says in the fine prints that all IKEA stores around Paris have a CHAdeMO Fast Charging station and stores in Avignon, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Reims, Rouen and Tours

The number of CHAdeMO stations installed is growing steadily ...

Closeup on Paris and surrounding cities

New EV Quick Charger website platform by DBT-CEV

DBT CEV making and installing CHAdeMO DC Fast Chargers given by Nissan in Europe has launched a dedicated website to help locate them 

" We’re launching a new mini-website dedicated to the “European Quick Charging Network” Program currently lead by our partner Nissan Europe. With already 200 fast chargers installed in more than 15 countries across the continent (from Moscow to Dublin, from Norway to Italy) European drivers of fast charging compatible electric vehicles (Nissan™, Renault™, Citroën™, Peugeot™, Mitsubishi™, Toyota™, …) are now able to charge 100% of their battery in less than 30 minutes. This new “UNIVERSAL QUICK CHARGER” website allows you to localize currently available fast chargers as well as discover our full line of universal quick chargers, whatever your charging need (parking lot, highway stop, shopping center, railway station, etc.). "

Check it out here http://www.universal-quick-charger.com



Source: DBT CEV 

Nissan and DBT-CEV installed a Fast Charging Station between Rennes and Nantes (France)

Nissan and DBT-CEV just finish the installation of a Fast Charging Station between two French big cities, Rennes and Nantes, at a small supermarket called U Express near Grand Fougeray

This is good news and it is the way to go : "Inter-City Fast Charging"  like Jack Rickard always says: "You don't need Level 2 charging stations in town", because most of the time you charged at home and with higher range in EVs nowadays, most likely you will fill up at home again when you're back from town; But if you have to go far, then you will for sure need to charge on the way, and quickly, and that is when and where you need DC or AC fast chargers ...



Following Nissan's rules, these chargers are given but the charge has to be free for at least one year (free electricity paid by the store owner)

Here is the ChargeMap point for this charge location: http://fr.chargemap.com/points/details/u-express-grand-fougeray with all the details

Some locals alreday tried it yesterday and took some pictures available on the ChargeMap link above; Here is one of them:

Renault ZOE and its Chameleon Charger - Breakthrough or Problem ?

Renault introduced a new charger called " the Chameleon Charger " with its ZOE : Is it a breakthrough or a false good idea ?

Well, it is a breakthrough because, like the picture says, it can take high AC power, from 3kW to 43kW, convert it to DC, and feed it to the Zoe battery pack: It is the first time we see this kind of equipment onboard an EV ! They did a great job reducing the size and weight of what used to be pretty big and heavy to a "small box" that sits on top of the ZOE powertrain in the front engine bay

It allows Zoe to be charged from a wallbox at home - at 3 or 6 kW -, on the street or Autolib stations - at 3 kw -, or at even higher power charge stations - mostly to be installed - at 22kW and 43kW, and all these last ones are not that expensive because they are "just" a "simple" delivery of 3-phase AC that is running undergroud anywhere, reducing the cost of installation

Now, the only downside to this good news is that the engineers at Renault forgot that many people just want to plug in on a regular outlet at home and charge during the night; They also want to be able to go to Grandma's house and be able to fill up also on a regular outlet... and the problem is that people realized that charging at 10A (Amps) on a regular outlet, the charge time is very long : 18 hours from empty

Renault started press releases on the Zoe, giving one to our Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourd, then delivering ten to a Leclerc Supermarket in Brittany; and this is where the first people actually tested this low current charge using charge stations delivering both 3kW and 2kW; People charging at 3kW - with the Type 3 to Type 2 cable - had no prblem and the others, using the other side of the charging station, charging at 2kW on a regular outlet 220V under 10A realized it took a very long time to charge ...

This incident has been reported and Renault then decided to cancel the use of the "occasional charge cable", the regular outlet cable or EVSE you find in any LEAF, i-MiEV, etc

Then started a wind of protest on EV blogs and some customers cancelled their order, others did not and had to have a Wallbox - 3kW- installed at home, adding an unexpected expense - around 1,000 EUR- to the purchase price.

Others decided to still use an EVSE, buy one, and some even made one, and this lead to an electronics designer, an Italian named David R., making his own EVSE with selectable current, compatible with any AC outlet, few weeks ago

David's contact at ELPA : el.pa@tiscali.it , I think he's selling his EVSE for 500 EUR, which is a good price

Now using this EVSE, a new ZOE owner tested it at 10A 220V at home and here are the real figures on this "slow" charge: (Source http://renault-zoe.forumpro.fr/t1446-temps-de-recharge-effective-a-10a-teste-avec-le-cro-de-davidr )

J'ai fait cette nuit un test de charge à 10A avec le Câble de Recharge de DavidR (voir http://renault-zoe.forumpro.fr/t838p30-30a-cro#20418 ) .

10A étant la charge que peut supporter une prise 16A en continue sans danger.
La charge a démarré en 10A et a fonctionné toute la nuit sans problème.

Heure ........ Batterie chargée à .......... Temps de charge restant (affiché par la ZOE)
22h08 ................. 28% ........................ 14h15
23h08 ................. 34% ........................ 13h20
. 5h08 ................. 65% ........................ 7h10
. 8h08 ................. 78% ........................ 4h30
10h08 ................. 90% ........................ 2h20
11h08 ................. 96% ........................ 1h20
11h28 ................. 98% ........................ 1h
11h38 ................. 99% ........................ ---- (plus d'affichage du temps restant)
12h30 .................100% 

En résumé, le CRO de DavidR fonctionne et permet de recharger la ZOE à 10A sur une prise classique. La recharge se fait de façon presque linéaire sauf pour le dernier %.
Une recharge à 10A permet de recharger entre 5.5% et 6% par Heure soit entre 6.5 et 7km par Heure.
En faisant la moyenne on obtient :
Temps de charge ........% de charge ............Km possible
............ 1 ........................ 5,8 .................... 6,8
............ 2 ........................ 11,5 .................... 13,5
............ 3 ........................ 17,3 .................... 20,3
............ 4 ........................ 23,0 .................... 27,0
............ 5 ........................ 28,8 .................... 33,8
............ 6 ........................ 34,5 .................... 40,5
............ 7 ........................ 40,3 .................... 47,3
............ 8 ........................ 46,0 .................... 54,0
............ 9 ........................ 51,8 .................... 60,8
............ 10 ...................... 57,5 .................... 67,5
............ 11 ...................... 63,3 .................... 74,3
............ 12 .................... . 69,0 .................... 81,0
............ 13 ...................... 74,8 .................... 87,8
............ 14 ...................... 80,5 .................... 94,5
............ 15 ...................... 86,3 ................... 101,3
............ 16 ...................... 92,0 ................... 108,0
............ 17 ...................... 97,8 ................... 114,8
............ 18 ..................... 100,0 .................. 120,0

18h pour une charge complète c'est bien ce qu'annonce Renault dans son manuelle d'utilisation de la ZOE. A savoir 30% de charge en 6h avec un câble de recharge occasionnel.

=> So that is 18 hours to fully charge from empty battery pack

And the worst part:

Si on ne compte pas la phase finale de la charge, ça donnerait 16 heures pour passer de 5,8 à 92%, soit 5,3875% à l'heure, donc une puissance utile de 1,185 kW.
Il faudrait vérifier la consommation réelle, mais en 10A, on est censé consommer 2,2 kW au compteur EDF.
Le rendement serait donc de 53,8%  

Ou dit autrement, une consommation de 34,2 kWh pour un stockage de 19 kWh et 15,2 kWh perdus en chauffage des petits oiseaux  
C'est pas grave, c'est mémé qui paye  

=> The overall consumption to fill up the 22kW battery pack is almost doubled ... and this is probably why Renault decided to remove this EVSE from their orginal ZOE catalog


Renault said they will find a solution to this problem, but today, still no news

I personally think the only way to deal with this is to add a small onboard regular charger - like the one you have on a LEAF for example - but it could be a bit pricy

We will see what the future bings us ... Stay tuned

DBT installs a New AC DC Fast Charger in France

DBT installed a new AC & DC Quick Charger in Chaponne, France early July

Located in a brand new BP rest area / gas station on A6 freeway, halfway between Paris and Lyon, this new kind of fast charger can deliver AC (Mennekes standard, up to 43kW) and DC (CHAdeMo standard, up to 50kW), that is for example for both a Renault Zoe and a Nissan LEAF

For now, the cost aof a full charge is 5 EUR

DBT has a new line of QC Chargers

Nothing mentions this charging station on BP website, I guess it is too new ...

Links:
- Technical Brochure
- Press Release
- DBT CEV ( Charging Electric Vehicles )