SAE Sets Worldwide Standards for Electric Vehicle Charging Outlet

Electric vehicles are coming. Many automakers will offer full production level electric drive vehicles within the next two years. The vehicles are compelling for many reasons, but are not without a few faults. For many potential buyers, range and range anxiety are a major concern. Though range is certainly a concern, others are concerned with the compatibility of charging such a vehicle.

For example, if you purchase an electric vehicle this year how can you be certain that it is compatible with roadside charging stations? How do you know if you will be able to plug in anywhere in the world? Will your car be compatible with charging stations 5 years from now or 10 years from now? These unanswered questions are cause for concern for many potential buyers. But you need to fear the answers to the above questions anymore.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has finalized the standards for electric vehicles in regards to charging cords and charging stations. By setting worldwide standards for electric vehicles, the SAE has now assured potential buyers that their vehicles will be compatible with charging stations worldwide.

Standardization of vehicles is an important step towards making them compatible worldwide. Standardization allows vehicles to be utilized across the globe without a fear of incompatibility. SAE International has finalized their guidelines for plug-in vehicles. This standardization sets forth guidelines for charging apparatuses which allows owners of plug-in vehicles to charge their car throughout the world.

The interface between the vehicles charging outlet and the charging cable must follow guidelines laid out by the SAE. In essence, the guidelines make all EVs compatible with all charging stations.

As SAE Hybrid Task Force Chief Gery Kissel said in an interview with Edmunds.com, "All of the charging equipment you would pull up to in public would have identical connectors, so any vehicle could use one."

This new standard laid out by the SAE is referred to as Standard J1772, SAE Electric Vehicle Conductive Charger Coupler. The purpose of the new standard is to make a common global charging interface which will in turn make EVs compatible with charging units anywhere in the world.

As Edmunds.com writer Scott Doggett reports, this new standard is essential to ensuring compatibility. As they state, "Without a standard interface some plug-in vehicles would be able to use some chargers but not others. Imagine owning a gasoline-powered car that you could fill up at some gas stations, but not at others, because the nozzles and/or fuel inlets differed."

Work on creating this standard by the SAE has been ongoing for some time now. Completion of this standard and its guidelines will now help automakers design plug-in vehicles with worldwide compatible charging interfaces.

Source: Edmunds.com
New SAE International Standard Defines Electric Vehicle Charging Coupler, Januaury 15th, 2010, Scott Doggett