Latest news with #CombinedChargingSystem
Newsweek
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Revolutionary New EV Charging Plans for US Revealed
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Higher electric vehicle charging speeds require cars capable of receiving the more powerful flow of electrons. Mercedes-AMG is building new cars capable of higher electric extremes than ever before, and Mercedes-Benz is creating a charging network to match. "Just like AMG defines performance on the road, we define the charging performance," Michael Springmann, head of high-power charging in Europe for Mercedes-Benz Mobility, told Newsweek. The company has committed to building 10,000 charging points at a minimum within the next 10 years. Mercedes-Benz has already confirmed that it will build over 2,500 charging points at a minimum of 400 stations across North America by 2027. The company has invested $1 billion to complete the installation. Today, the company operates about 400 charging plugs in 14 U.S. states and will greatly increase the number of Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging sites this summer. Each site has four to over 20 plugs. The average installation has 10 plugs. A rendering of a vehicle parked at a Mercedes-Benz-branded charger. A rendering of a vehicle parked at a Mercedes-Benz-branded charger. Mercedes-Benz Canada will have its first High-Power Charging site by the end of the year. "AMG has defined performance on the road for decades, now we're pushing the limits of charging performance. Drivers are hungry for fast charging in amenity rich locations that fit their lifestyle... Soon, we will increase charging power for an even faster experience across North America," Andrew Cornelia, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging North America, told Newsweek. A recently announced technological innovation will be part of the company's efforts to revolutionize the charging experience in the U.S. and Europe. The enhanced electric capability is a result of a new charging station co-developed with Alpitronic, an Italian charging hub company with a U.S. base in Charlotte, North Carolina. Like the Mercedes-AMG Concept AMG GT XX, the stations use direct cooling. This technology helps the charging station's thermal management capabilities, allowing battery cells and power lines to remain within heat tolerances during the high-heat-producing charging process. Energy can flow at a higher rate out of the station as a direct result of these innovations, and because of the high-speed capability of the new AMG 800-volt electric vehicle architecture, more than 850 kilowatts, over a wide charging curve. All power is delivered via a CCS (Combined Charging System) connector cable. "No one wants to fly on the Autobahn and then fail at the charger," Michael Schiebe, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-AMG, told Newsweek. Though powerful, the unit is not ready to hand over electrons quite as quickly as BYD's new chargers. Introduced in China, the chargers deliver 1,000 kilowatts of energy at 1,000 volts. The company's Han L sedan can gain nearly 250 miles of range in under five minutes at that rate. The first production version of the new Alpitronic charging station will be installed in 2026, Springmann said. The company has already worked with Mercedes-Benz to install charging stations at locations across the U.S. Those stations are half the power of the proposed AMG stations. Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging North America has not said if the higher-power chargers AMG has worked on will replace some of the recently installed chargers in the region. However, questions remain regarding the connector for those stations. With more vehicles coming to market with NACS (North American Charging Standard) charging, Alpitronic and Mercedes-Benz have yet to publicly sort out whether the charger will be brought to market exclusively with a CCS connection, as discussed in regard to the prototype technology, or with a NACS, or both. Currently, some adapter solutions are available for electric vehicle owners. This week, the High-Power Charging brand announced that it has entered into an agreement with Federal Realty Investment Trust to be the preferred charging provider of the company's national retail portfolio. The arm of the automaker will install over 500 400-kilowatt/800-volt charging stalls that are compatible with CCS and NACS-equipped vehicles from any brand. The first location is expected to go live in 2026. An initial rollout will begin at 20 locations including Camelback Colonnade in Phoenix, AZ; Lawrence Park Shopping Center in Broomall, PA; and Shops at Pembroke Gardens in Pembroke Pines, FL. Each location will have up to 10 charging stalls capable of 400-kilowatt charging speeds, which can be used by vehicles that charge via CCS and NACS connections.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ford says it's done sending out all its complimentary NACS charging adapters
Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products. Ford says it's done sending out all the complimentary NACS adapters that 140,000 EV customers in the US had reserved. The automaker announced in 2023 that it was working with Tesla to give Ford EV owners access to tens of thousands of Superchargers across the US and Canada. In 2024, Ford's EVs became the first non-Tesla vehicles to be able to access Superchargers. However, since Ford EVs come with Combined Charging System (CCS) ports, they need North American Charging System adapters to be able to plug into Supercharger stations. The automaker gave new and current members of it BlueOval Charge Network — in other words, everyone who purchased it EVs — complimentary NACS adapters until June 30, 2024. Now, it has finished sending out the free adapters to everyone who asked for it. Those who need one will have to purchase the Ford Fast Charging Adapter, which "unlocks access to a vast network of DC fast charging stations using the North American Charging Standard (NACS)," for $200. Ford was planning to make the switch to built-in NACS ports for this year's EV models, but it's now unclear if that will happen, seeing as the 2025 model Mustang Mach-E still comes with a CCS port. Ford has also announced that its BlueOval Charge Network now includes 180,000 chargers at more than 50,000 locations, which translates to a 40 percent increase from the beginning of 2024. Like other automakers making the switch to electric, Ford is making an effort to expand charging availability. The hope is that wider access to chargers can help assuage range anxiety and encourage more people to buy electric.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Story (and Difficulties) Behind Hyundai's Switch from CCS to NACS
New electric vehicles in the United States and Canada are about to go through a hugely important charging revolution starting this year, as the transition from the Combined Charging System (CCS) to the North American Charging Standard (NACS) gets under way. Practically every OEM that sells EVs in the U.S. today is promising it will update its charging ports from CCS to NACS in due time, but doing so is a lot more involved than simply yanking out one port and swapping in the other. The first vehicle on sale to make the switch from CCS to NACS is the refreshed 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, a car we drove just a short couple of weeks ago. So, how'd Hyundai do it? We sat down with battery guru Karl Holodnick, Hyundai engineering manager for propulsion and charging, to talk it out. "I would say probably the biggest change is, you now have, going from CCS to NACS, consolidated the AC and DC lines at the charging port," Holodnick tells Road & Track, "where before you had separate charging lines for the DC and AC lines." Lost already? That's okay. Seeing a diagram of the different connector designs helps. The CCS connector has separate pins for alternating-current and direct-current charging: The top portion of the plug is used for AC, while the bottom comprises the additional two DC power lines. You may have already deduced this if you've ever plugged a non-Tesla EV into a Level 2 charger; the bottom part of the CCS connector is missing, because the only goal is taking on AC power. However, whether you're plugging into a Level 2 AC charger or a Tesla Supercharger (a DC fast-charger), there is no difference in the connector design for Teslas. This means the car needs to know what kind of charger you're using before charging begins, for safety's sake. "So probably the biggest change that we've made to the design and switching over is the addition of a relay in the system, because you're using the same cables for AC and DC," Holodnick says. "We added the relay to the system in order to switch from both alternating current to direct current. You can imagine that if both lines are active at the same time, you're damaging components." In addition to the physical relay, Hyundai needed to implement new code to work with it. "It's not only the hardware change that we've made, but we've also added new safety related software functions to the system as well," Holodnick says. "If we're DC charging, one of the first things that we do in the initialization process is checking to make sure that the AC line is open before we send the DC power to the battery and vice versa." Getting the software right and making sure charging is a seamless experience for customers required a lot of collaboration with Tesla. It's a relationship Holodnick speaks highly of, as successfully working with those folks is one of the factors Hyundai credits with it being first to market with its NACS transition. "One of the keys there is probably open communication with Tesla," Holodnick says. "We built a pretty good working relationship with them to, you know, get all of the development work done to make it happen. In terms of the modifications that we made to our system, it's been, I would say, overall a pretty smooth and seamless transition." The key matter that Hyundai and Tesla worked on concerns the power-line communications (PLC) protocol. In layman's terms, this standardized protocol is what allows communication and coordination between the vehicle and the charging network. (Thankfully, NACS and CCS utilize the same protocol, easing this process.) "During the PLC communication stage of the charging sequence, there is information that is shared back and forth between the vehicle and the charger," Holodnick says. "The vehicle has unique identifiers, the charger has unique identifiers, [and those] are shared in order to initiate the charging session. So there was a lot of work back and forth with Tesla to make sure that the vehicle and charger were communicating properly." Getting this correct from the beginning is key for Hyundai, and it's something Holodnick and the team realize. A complaint that comes up repeatedly with CCS chargers is their tendency to underperform on claimed charge speed or simply be inoperable—Superchargers, meanwhile, have a much better reputation for consistent performance. Unfortunately, we're not totally out of the woods yet; peak charge speed remains a current-day compromise for many vehicles that'll make the NACS transition, and it's all to do with the electrical architecture of certain EVs. Hyundai's E-GMP platform is an 800-volt system, and when plugged into a charger that can match its voltage (such as an Electrify America 350-kW fast-charger), the 2025 Ioniq 5 can charge at up to 257 kW. That gets you from 10–80% in only 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Tesla's Superchargers are 470-volt chargers, meaning the Ioniq 5's charge speed is ultimately limited by the power of the plug. Hyundai claims a max charge speed of 135 kW on Tesla's V3 Superchargers, which nets a 10–80% charge in 30 minutes. Holodnick adds that if/when Tesla rolls out its proposed 800-volt Superchargers, it will be able to charge with much greater power. Expect to see similar compromises in maximum charge speed with other EVs that don't match the voltage of Tesla Supercharger systems. If you were expecting to hear about massive changes to the battery pack, electric motors, or other powertrain bits with the NACS transition, Hyundai's switchover leaves those left unchanged. That's not to say other OEMs won't attack problems differently, possibly in an effort to improve performance on Superchargers, but the big problems that needed solving are safety- and software-communications-related. From the official NACS announcement to the start of North American production at the end of 2024, it took Hyundai just a year and a few days to finally drive an NACS Ioniq 5 off the assembly line. That's shockingly quick for any automotive change, let alone one as vital to a car's operation as EV charging. We're sure there will be refinements and user-experience improvements in time, but the big hurdle has been conquered: 2025 Ioniq 5s can mosey on down to a Tesla Supercharger and plug right in. "If I can brag about my team a little bit," Holodnick says. "The hard work that the team has put into, you know, all of the performance testing; all of the interoperability testing; the long hours; and blood, sweat, and tears that they've really put into making sure that everything is working perfectly to get this right, in order to ensure a smooth launch. I think that's probably the thing that I'm most proud of." You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ionna, a Competitor to Tesla's Charging Network, Begins in Earnest
Ionna, the new charging network backed by automakers such as General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota, entered a new phase today. The Tesla Supercharger network competitor is exiting public beta testing and entering a full-scale launch phase. Ionna has plans to deploy more than 1000 live charging bays by the end of 2025 en route to more than 30,000 chargers by the end of the decade. Ionna is transitioning from public beta testing to a full-scale launch. The new charging network is the byproduct of a joint venture between multiple automakers. The list includes BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota. Ionna is also a natural competitor to the Tesla Supercharger network. Since it was announced in February 2024, the joint venture has contracted more than 100 charging sites around the country, including three sites opening this week in Houston, Texas; Abilene, Kansas; and Willcox, Arizona. Ionna also plans to open more than 1000 charging bays in the United States this year, with plans for more than 30,000 chargers by the end of the decade. Ionna's DC fast-chargers, which the company calls Ionna Genuine Charge Dispensers, operate at up to 400 kW or up to 200 kW when charging two vehicles at once. Each site will have access to charging cables that use either the Combined Charging System (CCS) or Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector. The chargers will also be open to all electric vehicles, including EVs made by manufacturers other than those included in the joint venture. The company is planning for locations both along major highways and in more urban or rural areas. Ionna says some charging locations will feature flagship stations. The company also announced a new partnership with Amazon to include the company's "Just Walk Out" technology in retail spaces at Ionna charging stations. You Might Also Like Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades How to Buy or Lease a New Car Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
