EV Charging Connector Types Worldwide

With the rapid development of the global electric vehicle industry, various countries are speeding up the construction of electric vehicle charging piles. However, the EV charging connector types vary from country to country, which to a certain extent affects the convenience of EV charging.

At present, North America mainly uses SAE J1772 standard, Europe uses IEC 62196-1,2,3 standard, China is using standard GB/T 20234.1,2,3-2011, and Japan’s is using CHAdeMO standard. Figure 1 shows the types of EV charging connectors worldwide.

SAE J1772 Standard

SAE J1772 is a North American standard for electrical connectors for electric vehicles maintained by the SAE International and has the formal title “SAE Surface Vehicle Recommended Practice J1772, SAE Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler”.

SAE J1772 standard AC charging plug is shown in Figure 2.

The function of each contact is shown in Table 1. for AC single-phase charging, its voltage and maximum current are shown in Table 2.

IEC 62196-1,2,3 Standard

Type 1

IEC 62196 is an international standard for set of electrical connectors and charging modes for electric vehicles and is maintained by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The IEC 62196 standard type 1 charging connector contact definition is the same as the SAE J1772 standard AC charging interface, as shown in Figure 2.

Type 2

The type 2 charging connector contact definition of the IEC 62196 standard is shown in Figure 3.

Charging power pins: line (L1), line (L2), line (L3), neutral(N), and protective earth (PE).
Signal pins: the control pilot (CP) and proximity pilot (PP).

The maximum voltage and current of the IEC 62196 standard charging connector in three-phase and single-phase power are shown in Table 3.

CHAdeMO Standard

CHAdeMO was formed by The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries. Toyota later joined as its fifth executive member. Three of these companies have developed electric vehicles that use TEPCO‘s DC connector for quick charging.

The contact definition of the charging connector of the CHAdeMO standard can be seen in Table 5, while Figure 4 shows the timing circuit of the CHAdeMO.

The CHAdeMO standard can output high voltage DC power up to 62.5kw. Figure 5 shows the CHAdeMO standard EV charging connectors.

GB/T 20234.1,2,3-2011 Standard

The GB/T 20234.1,2,3-2011 standard has an AC charging connector as shown in Figure 6, a DC charging connector as shown in Figure 7, and a maximum voltage and current and insulation level as shown in Figure 7. GB’s DC charging also uses CAN communication.

Combined Charging System (CCS) Standard

The Combined Charging System is a quick charging method for battery electric vehicles delivering high-voltage direct current via a special electrical connector derived from the SAE J1772 (IEC Type 1) or IEC Type 2 connector. As the plug is a combination of an AC connector with a DC option the resulting connector is also called Combo Coupler and the variant with Type 2 is abbreviated as Combo2.

The eight major American and German manufacturers, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Porsche, released the “Joint Charging System” in 2012. All current charging interfaces are unified so that four modes of single-phase AC charging, fast three-phase AC charging, home DC charging, and super-speed DC charging can be accomplished with one interface.
The charging plug of the combined type using the SAE J1772 standard is shown in Figure 8. Figure 9 shows the combined charging plug with charging using IEC 62196 standard. Figure 10 shows the schematic diagram of combined charging and power information.

The communication protocol for combined charging uses power carrier communication, PLC (power line communication). While GB/T and CHAdeMO use CAN communication.

Summary

From the above, The EV charging connector types differ significantly from country to country and region to region. There is still a long way to go to have a unified international standard.