Quote:
Originally Posted by exxxviii
DCFC charging stations cost a lot to maintain - CCS 1 is a stupidly expensive design, and the cords alone cost a fortune compared to NACS cords. They have a very high fixed cost and a tiny consumer base, so they are unprofitable.
As soon as the existing networks switch to NACS/J3400, their addressable market massively multiplies. They can all become profitable almost overnight. And then, they have the revenue stream to support the maintenance costs.
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Comparing the cost of design is an interesting angle. How many SC cords/handles today can push more than 250kW or can charge batteries higher than 500v? How many of those SC cords are liquid cooled? What specifically, besides the limitation in power output, allows SC to use non-cooled cords? Don't CCS1 and CCS2 dispensers also have uncooled cords but at lower power limits?
Before anyone mentions v4 SC dispensers, I would like to remind you that we don't have any in the US and that the power output was just announced this week for EU (350kW at 1000v max) which sounds very much like the SK Signet and others out there that support CCS1 and CCS2. Folks like to conflate the plug with the quality of service provided by bad service providers.
800v cars that are able to accept 500A from a dispenser are in our future. The argument here seems to be stuck in 400v platforms and the largest US network of HPC's don't support that currently but the CCS1 network certainly does for the existing 800v cars. We need competition to drive improvements and this news from BMW is very welcome. Now there will be a new set of challenges that will need to be overcome and that's with the current limitation of 500A and I'm willing to bet that liquid cooling will play a major role.