Nissan develops new rapid charger for electric vehicles

Nissan Motor Co. has developed a new rapid charger for its electric vehicle range, that it says is smaller, half the price and easier to install than existing models.

The Japanese car manufacturer plans to have the charger, which was launched at Nissan’s Yokohoma headquarters yesterday, on the Japanese market by November, with an announcement for a future European and U.S release expected soon. The charger is compatible with all of Nissan’s electric cars as well as EV models from other manufacturers including those of Honda and Toyota.

“The newly developed quick charging unit retains the high performance of the current quick charger manufactured by Nissan ... but is nearly half the size by volume,” Nissan said in a company statement. “The new charger unit's smaller size will take up less space and enable easier installation,” the statement continued.

A rapid charging system has been seen as key in allaying fears created by so called ‘range anxiety’, where EV drivers begin to panic on longer journeys as to whether their energy-efficient vehicle will last the distance. The implications of the coined phrase have lead to engineers scrambling to become the first to create an EV charging facility that allows a rapid reliable charge. European-based Park & Charge and American firm Better Place have developed their own chargers in recent years, while JFE Engineering Corp. claim that they are putting the finishing touches to a rapid charging system that will provide a battery with a 50 percent charge from zero in just 3 minutes.

As Climate Action reported earlier this month, another major concern is cost. A study in the UK, by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP), claims that the £5,000 subsides offered by the UK government to those buying green vehicles is not enough to tilt the balance, with Electric and hydrogen cars set to remain more expensive than conventional vehicles until at least 2025 or 2030. The study puts the spiraling cost of running electric vehicles down to the replacement of electric car batteries.

Nissan Motor’s Vice President Simon Sproule dismisses the claims as myth stating that replacing the battery of the Nissan Leaf, the cars own EV model, will only cost hundreds not thousands, as quoted in the study. “There has been a lot of chatter online about tens of thousands of dollars or Euros to replace a whole battery pack,” says Sproule. Really, you are going to focus on the modules, and the modules are going to be in the hundreds, not the thousands of euros or dollars, because if there is going to be a failure, it's more likely to be an individual module, not the whole battery pack,” added Sproule. Sproule, who also heads the manufacturers’ global communications, also rejected concerns of the Leaf’s battery being damaged by rapid charging.

Nissan has also announced that the Leaf model will soon become available in China, after the neighbouring country granted approval for the electric vehicle to enter its lucrative auto market. Kimiyasu Nakamura, president of Nissan's China joint venture, told reporters that, “the Leaf does not hit the Chinese market's sweet spot now, in terms of price, but that will change as unit sales grow.” Additionally, Nissan is planning to launch a lower-priced electric vehicle specifically designed for the Chinese market, as part of its plans to reach 2.3 million unit sales a year by 2015.