SMART CHARGING AND EV ERA WITH CCS

CCS: The Advent of Smart Charging and EV Era
Conference on ISO/IEC 15118 International Standard Held in Jeju

A sneak peek into the future of 2025, more specifically, the global EV market was available in Jeju in early November.

Conference on ISO/IED 15118 JWG International Standard and ISO/IEC 15118 Testing Symposium, each of which determines the future and expansion of EV market, was held in Jeju amid strong signs of EV market expansion ? followed by the worldwide response to global warming, environment and deactivation of petroleum, the reinforcement of exhaust gas regulation, and subsequent to the Volkswagen (VW) diesel incident. Here, the officials of global OEM, charger and grid industries were designing the next-generation charging environment and EV market, in which "simple and convenient charging along with energy management and many more services will be provided and received- all possible with a single standard.”

Written by Sang Min HAN han@autoelectronics.co.kr
  

NXP's Call

I visited Jeju during the second week of November, after receiving a phone call from NXP Semiconductor.

The purpose of the visit involved covering the ‘Conference on ISO/IED 15118 JWG International Standard and ISO/IEC 15118 Testing Symposium’, which held for five days at Ocean Suites Jeju Hotel and Smart Grid Interoperability Testing Center, partially sponsored by Charging Interface Initiative e. V.,CharIN consortium.

GridWiz of Korea was responsible for overseeing this year’s international standard conference and testing symposium. Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) induced participation while Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (KSAE) and Korea Smart Grid Association (KSGA) hosted the international standard conference. Testing symposium which is the affiliated event was run by ISO/IEC JWG1, Technical University of Dortmund, and was sponsored by CharIN and the International Electric Vehicle Expo (IEVE).

CharIN, a rather unfamiliar term for many, is a consortium established in January 2015. It is an industrial consortium aiming at the global promotion and technological progress of CCS (combined charging system), which is generally called "combo." It was established by the OEMs that promote CCS as Europe and North America's EV charging standard, including Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Porsche and VW.

The reason for CharIN’s sponsoring of the Testing Symposium lies in the fact that the IEC 15118 testing standard is a charging communication method being adopted by CCS. CCS method integrating live parts of AC and DC is becoming the global market standard while DIN 70121 communication standard - referred to as the combo method and being utilized in CCS - is a enacted standard by having partially adopted the initial version of ISO/IEC 15118, according to Hyun-woong Kim, director of GridWiz and the only Korean member of CharIN. Some parts of ISO/IEC 15118 communication standard were officially announced as the international standard by 2015, while vibrant discussions are on the way on a revised edition in preparation for the future expandability such as wireless charging including both contactless charging and WiFi wireless communication, V2X and use cases for this year’s conference in Jeju.

NXP is involved as a constituent of the CharIN's steering committee. NXP is the only non-founding member of CharIN included in the steering committee.

, "As a leader in the global automotive semiconductor field, NXP actively supports the CharIN initiative for CCS becoming the global charging standard. NXP has been readily offering technical support in CharIN defining and managing the charging standard-related future technology and regulation roadmap," said Shin Bakje, the president of NXP Korea.
 


Jacques Borremans(left) regional director of the CharIN Asia office and Michael Schwaiger(right) of BMW, the leader of ISO/IEC 15118 JWG 
  

Why CharIN?

Why would ISO/IEC 15118 and CCS that have already become the international standards require active promotion of global consortium like CharIN?

Jacques Borremans, the representative of CharIN Asia office said, "CCS has started from the German automotive industry and it was promoted after the completion of the first standard design so it became available later than the CHAdeMO specifications. Our wishes are to share information without hiding and focus on one technology that everyone uses, and greatly disseminate electric mobility by responding to the "business and customer's life simplification demand" of the car makers who want to sell EVs, the charging business providers who want to deploy charging business, and the grid providers who want to sell and service electricity."

The EV charging is largely divided into two parts: a rapid DC charging for 50kW and greater and a moderate AC charging for 7kW and higher that is usually used at home. The rapid charging field is crowded with various specifications, such as CCS, CHAdeMO, AC 3-phase, China's GB/T and Tesla's supercharger. Since the charging specifications are different per car maker and model, the resources are dispersed and it is causing various problems including charging compatibility, and limitations in diffusing charging infrastructures, which, as a result, is a major stumbling block in expansion of the EV market. And it is the reason why an expensive charger, a.k.a. "two-arm" and "three-arm" that encompasses all specifications of CCS, CHAdeMO and AC 3-phase, was distributed. However, it generates a cost issue in terms of automotive production and infrastructure expansion.    

CHAdeMO has been the most widely distributed high-speed charger worldwide, although ISO/IEC 15118 is the international standard implemented by CCS. This is primarily because Nissan and Mitsubishi of Japan actively engaged in the penetration of the Japanese, American and European EV markets from the early stage of the EV market. Until recently, 13,295 units of CHAdeMO were installed around the world. About 7,000 units in Japan, 4,000 units in Europe, 2,000 units in the US and 500 units in other countries were distributed. On the other hand, about 4,000 units of CCS, consisting of 2,500 units of CCS in Europe, 250 units in Asia and 1,000 units in the US, were distributed. What will happen ahead is important.

Moreover, Europe and the US's strong emission regulation and demand for electric power train and VW's diesel gate generated a serious demand for unified charging specifications, cost reduction and charging convenience for the fast promotion of e-mobility and the EV market expansion.

"The global sales volume of BMW i has exceeded 100,000 units in three years. We expect a 30% of the sales volume will be composed of plug-in hybrid and battery EV by 2025. It is the same with other car makers like Daimler, which have been actively promoting the EV business with the same prospects and goals that we share," said Michael Schwaiger of BMW, the leader of ISO/IEC 15118 JWG.

The majority of the EV industry and as well as the CCS field assume that the future has been already set, by saying "CHAdeMO's data is already a pass?."

Jung Doyang, the CEO of PNE Systems said, "The distribution volume of CHAdeMO is far greater but CCS is the international standard, and the American and European standard. With the increasing number of car makers choosing CCS for their new models, it will definitely become the future."

Since CHAdeMO has one charging inlet, simultaneous moderate charging is impossible as it needs an additional plug. Thus, it has a weakness in terms of cost and integration. On the other hand, CCS solves everything with one connector and inlet. CHAdeMO has a bigger volume and offers slower charging time, compared to those of CCS and supercharger. From CCS's perspective, CHAdeMO's strength is stability, which had been revised over the years based on experience. The charging power of CHAdeMO is the maximum of 62.5kW, which is lower than supercharger's 120kW and CCS's 100kW to 350kW. A lower charging ability means longer charging time.

However, the important competitiveness; that is, the key for the EV market development is the charging facility's sustainability and as well as feature extensibility and the future possibilities. Borremans said, "There are a few problems in the EV market, which are charging time, the sustainability of charging facility and compatibility. CCS can solve these problems."

 
The key CharIN members; the major OEMs in Europe are all included.
 
The Future Smart Charging

"For instance, BMW wants to sell more EVs by enhancing EVs' performance and values further, so we are active with ISO/IEC 15118 and CharIN both. With CCS, we want to increase its charging power and reduce the charging time and expect to smart charging features such as automatic payment and V2G," said Michael Schwaiger of BMW.

The ISO/IEC 15118 standard, which is scheduled to be completed by early 2018, is the standard that enables smart EV charging. The existing EV chargers (including CCS) simply offer the beginning and completion of charging but the ISO/IEC 15118 standard offers further upgraded services. The ISO/IEC 15118 standard defines all charging communication-related matters for intelligent and smart charging methods and they are connection and certification, fee rate negotiation, automatic payment, charging management and requirements for smart grid. If the amount of electricity supplied from the electric network is insufficient the charging management system can supply energy from EV to the network.

Moreover, ISO/IEC 15118-6, -7 and -8 are about wireless electricity transmission. In layman's term, it instantly solves the issues, such as who wants or acquires how much energy when, where and in what condition and whether or not a legally valid bill has been produced for it.

Borremans said, "If we compare CHAdeMO and CCS, the both systems have the same functions in terms of car and grid but the future CCS and ISO/IEC 15118 have a variety of additional functions and potential that CHAdeMO does not have. For instance, the grid operator could have a sustainable technology that guarantees operation for 10 ~ 20 years without replacement every 2 to 3 years and the cars could offer the services like V2G and V2H." Lim Geunhee, the doctor at Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute's Electric Propulsion Research Division, said, "With CHAdeMO, the data communication is not available during the process of converting AC to DC, so it can send the information like grid only to the charger, not to the car."

The CCS rapid charging distinguishes the communication channel and power line so the communication is conducted with PLC (power line communication) and the charging with DC. With CHAdeMO, the communication is conducted with CAN and the charging with DC.

Kim said, "The greatest difference of ISO/IEC 15118 from the existing charging method is that the IPv6 is the same communication method as the Internet. When the cable is plugged in, the car and the charger automatically acknowledge each other and continuously exchange information in real time, such as how much power can be given or how much it is left and when will the charging begin at which power level and at what cost. It also enables the operation of diverse services, including navigation update, and video or music streaming and download during charging by using PLC's high bandwidth of 10Mbps and 600 Mbps of Wifi."
 


The current use case of ISO/IEC 15118

 
International Standard Conference: B2G and Wireless Charging
 
The JWG conference on the EV charging interface standard by each serctor was held for three days at Ocean Suites Hotel Jeju Hotel. For the remaining two days, the EV control unit (ECU) test and the EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) interoperability and suitability test per manufacturer took place at the Smart Grid Interoperability Testing Center.

Conference on ISO/IEC 15118 project were conducted by each group for the first two days. Conference by the entire group was held on the third day. The project groups consisted of: ▶PT1 on the use case, ▶PT2 on message, sequence and timing, protocol and security, ▶PT7 on wireless charging and WLAN (WiFi) physical layer, and ▶PT6 on all suitability tests. The conference officials sought to resolve and improve various issues on documents and mediated each country's intention.

The biggest issue of the international standard conference was the V2G technology that backtracks electricity from the vehicle to the grid reversely.

The issues on the difference of grid environment per country and which will have the control power in backtracking among the vehicle, the power company or the charger were exclusively discussed. Recently, a small task force called BPT (Bidirectional Power Transport) was formed, and it has been discussing the relevant issues in depth. Also, Germany, France, Japan and Korea have been proposing and discussing BPT's backtracking technology.

Kim said, "Cars are no longer a simple means of transportation but an energy dispersive resource like ESS. Actually, in Japan, the car's electricity is often used as an emergency power source during the power supply demand crisis and for reducing peak load."

Wireless charging was highlighted as yet another key issue. Wireless charging utilizing 2.4 and 2.5 GHz bandwidth shared difficulty in that the country-specific channels varied, which was discussed and reviewed to be organized.

 
Simultaneous Test to Advance Market Release

Meanwhile, the testing symposium was held at the Smart Grid Interoperability Testing Center for two days from the 4th day of the conference.

"This 'testival' sponsored by CharIN is an open venue where the car, charger and test equipment makers mutually check the solutions that they develop and they discover and solve 99% of the problems in advance. It is a process of eliminating possible errors that could occur when their solutions become available in the market in the future and it is, for instance, enabling the use of any charger made by the charger manufacturers in Korea, Europe and the US in Hyundai Motors' EV without any problem," said Mr. Borremans, regional director at CharIN.

The testing symposium is an attached event of the ISO/IEC 15118 International Standard Conference and it is being held twice a year since 2014. Since it was first held at Argonne National Labs in Chicago in November 2014, it was held at Japan Automobile Research Labs in Tokyo, Technical University of Dortmund and Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego and it will be held in France next year. The significance of the Jeju symposium is that it was the first real car testing symposium held in Asia. The real car test and real charger test were not conducted in Tokyo.

Kim said, "The development, compatibility and suitability tests are held through this type of symposium, simultaneously with the composition of international standard, and the relevant products will be released at the time when the standardization is complete."

The symposium was attended by 35 global EV-related companies consisting of the OEMs, such as BMW and GM and Hyundai Motors that provided real cars, and 100 experts. The domestic charger companies include JoongAng Control, Signet Systems, PNE Systems and GridWiz. GridWiz revealed the ISO/IEC 15118 modem that enables communication between EV and the charger.

Three vehicles consisting of Ioniq, Bolt and i3 were in the real car test lab on the 1st floor with seven charger vendors that conducted tests with every two hours by taking turns. On the 2nd floor, the module and charger modem installed in the car were tested. The products tested at the symposium will be available in the market within 1 ~ 2 years with the completion of international standard. Moreover, the previous CSS specification models will be applied with ISO/IEC 15118 with a simple S/W upgrade.

The automotive companies will lead the EV charging standard. All major countries are participating in the standardization work. The major car makers excluding the Japanese car makers have already joined CharIN including Audi, BMW, Daimler, Faraday Future, FCA, Ford, GM, Renault, Jaguar Land Rover, Mahindra, Porsche, PSA, Tesla, VW and Volvo. Hyundai Motors is expected to join the consortium soon. Also, the number of inquiries on the ISO/IEC 15118 solution companies like GridWiz from the relevant companies from the US, Europe and Asia has quickly increased from 1~3 cases per month to 1~3 cases per day.

The advent of the electric mobility and EV era has been accelerating with CCS.  

AEM_Automotive Electronics Magazine