Volkswagen Group Parts has introduced its intention to launch a DC wallbox with 22 kW, which is already being ready for bidirectional charging. Actual operation has presently began at 5 plant areas as a part of a pilot part.
With the expertise gained there, the DC wallbox is to be developed “rapidly within the course of collection manufacturing”. At an AC charging level with 22 kW, only some autos can use the complete charging energy. Volkswagen’s MEB electrical vehicles are solely geared up with an 11 kW on-board charger, and the charging energy of the AC Wallbox ID is correspondingly low. Charger (and the correspondingly branded variations from Skoda, Seat or Cupra) is designed for 11 kW.
On the DC wallbox, autos will be charged independently of their AC onboard charger, which specifies the AC charging energy. In different phrases, autos with an 11 kW onboard charger (or perhaps a single-phase system) will also be charged at 22 kW on the DC Wallbox, offered they’ve a CCS socket.
DC wallboxes aren’t essentially supposed for personal use as a substitute of an AC wallbox – in spite of everything, adequate connection energy should nonetheless be accessible. Nonetheless, DC wall packing containers can exchange AC charging factors in public or semi-public areas, equivalent to parking tons. For instance, in a grocery store car parking zone, a corresponding electrical automotive might recharge as much as 11 kWh throughout a half-hour purchasing journey.
In keeping with the Volkswagen announcement, the system ought to already be ready for bidirectional charging. This permits the automobile battery to ship energy to the grid when wanted. “Offered an e-vehicle has this perform sooner or later, it may possibly serve, for instance, as an power storage system for one’s own residence or as a buffer for the ability grid,” VW writes. What’s extra, with a DC wallbox, connecting to a house storage battery can be simpler as a result of there’ll not be a must convert to AC between the batteries within the automobile, which function on DC energy, and the storage.
Within the pilot part, VW plans to assemble expertise with an preliminary 20 DC wallboxes at areas in Wolfsburg, Braunschweig, Hanover, Salzgitter and Kassel. How lengthy the pilot part is to final and when collection manufacturing is to be anticipated, nevertheless, is just not clear from the announcement. The charging factors are to be operated along with the present charging infrastructure, as the necessity for charging choices can be rising within the VW Group with the rising variety of e-vehicles.
The DC wallbox is just not VWGC’s first charging product: the group’s provider division had already unveiled the flexible fast charging column and a mobile charging robot. The AC Wallbox ID. Charger, whose launch was overshadowed by some software program issues, however, is obtainable by VW’s power subsidiary Elli.
