New Charging point at South MimmsM25/M1 Welcome Break

[rubin]

New Charging point South Mimms M25/M1 set up by Ecotricity(free Electricity no membership for now)opening Wednesday 27th July 09.30. 32amp 3 phase and 13 amp sockets at the Welcome Break

[timpootle]

Good news! *goes off to construct a 32A 3ph plug - to - 16A 1ph extension lead*

[Kevin Sharpe]

Good news! *goes off to construct a 32A 3ph plug - to - 16A 1ph extension lead*

did you pick up the fact that this has a "Mennekes" socket on the Charging Station?

[timpootle]

Wossa "Mennekes" then? Is that what Nissan use on the Leaf? or a different standard again?

I will have to go and do some homework...

[Grumpy-b]

Even T has s pic on his website of one. Its made by Mennekes in germany and is very similar to an american plug, as used on the tessla. There is a bit on the tesla site about these and they seem to cost many many hundreds.
They do single and three phase as well as a sensing circuit, in one unit. You can use the same plug on both ends of the cable the pins are shrouded in some way. Most disturbing is that many of the charge points that have these have one plug on a cable, so the only way of connecting a simple vehicle is with an inline connector / adaptor, which Im sure will cost a fortune.

Regards
Grumpy-b

[ChrisB]

Even T has s pic on his website of one. Its made by Mennekes in germany and is very similar to an american plug, as used on the tessla. There is a bit on the tesla site about these and they seem to cost many many hundreds.
They do single and three phase as well as a sensing circuit, in one unit. You can use the same plug on both ends of the cable the pins are shrouded in some way. Most disturbing is that many of the charge points that have these have one plug on a cable, so the only way of connecting a simple vehicle is with an inline connector / adaptor, which Im sure will cost a fortune.Regards
Grumpy-b

Dont they always

When will they realise that keeping it simple and inexpensive is the way they will get people to buy stuff

ChrisB

[timpootle]

Even T has s pic on his website of one. Its made by Mennekes in germany and is very similar to an american plug, as used on the tessla. There is a bit on the tesla site about these and they seem to cost many many hundreds.
They do single and three phase as well as a sensing circuit, in one unit. You can use the same plug on both ends of the cable the pins are shrouded in some way.

OK, I've had a bit of a read at
http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-roa ... ic-highway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_62196
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772


Second question - who uses this Mennekes plug-hole? Nissan and BMW-Mini are using J1772. Daimler and VW invented the standard, but don't produce an electric car. Who thought it would be a good idea? Looks like a "European standard" that no-one is using...

[Kevin Sharpe]

Second question - who uses this Mennekes plug-hole?

"Mennekes" (Type 2: VDE-AR-E 2623-2-2) is just one of the physical connectors supported by the IEC 62196 standard. Other connectors include SAE J1772 (Type 1), EV Plug Alliance (Type 3), and future DC standards...

The good news is that while all these connectors are all physically different the communications protocol is identical which means that you basically need an 'adapter' to connect them all up. Here's an example of a Type 2 (VDE-AR-E 2623-2-2 or "Mennekes") Charging Station cable to Type 1 (J1772) car;

J1772_mennekes_low_res.png (245.21 KiB) Viewed 26282 times

Type 2 also supports 3 Phase, V2G, and DC using the same connector and this is obviously good news for future EV's

The bad news is that all these standards use a communications protocol to tell the car and Charging Station info like maximum current capacity, fault conditions, etc.... therefore, simply plugging in a 'dumb' car will not result in any power being provided so unless you support the protocol you will have to plug into the 13A standard socket at the site (assuming it's provided).

[Kevin Sharpe]

It's probably also worth mentioning that the UK Government 'adopted' the IEC 62196 Type 2 ("Mennekes") connector in it's latest policy document and you'll start seeing this widely deployed in public locations at 32A (both 1 and 3 Phase);

"We want plug-in vehicle owners to be able to recharge quickly when they need to. Industry favours moving to a dedicated plug-in vehicle recharging connector (the IEC62196-2 Type 2) to allow faster recharging rates than are possible with a three-pin plug. Given this clear direction of travel, the Plugged-In Places will start to install public infrastructure with Type 2 connectors."

http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/making-the-connection-the-plug-in-vehicle-infrastructure-strategy/plug-in-vehicle-infrastructure-strategy.pdf

All of the ZCW Charging Stations will also be 'upgraded' to the "Mennekes" connector although we will also continue to deploy 13A "UK" sockets for legacy vehicles.