CHAdeMO Installation

Considering there are only ~78 million cars in Japan compared to ~270 million cars in the US, I am surprised that as many LEAF are sold in Japan.

 

Judging by the fact we have lots of Nissan leaf's for sale at any one time here in New Zealand and you see so many on the road and they are almost all used Japanese imports there must be a market there we are lucky here though most of our houses are feed by 230v single phase connections with 80amp fuses and it's not all that uncommon to see 3 phase supply's to homes.

 

I never thought about it before, but this thread has me thinking that the common 120VAC 200A service in the US might be a lot more than people in other developed countries have.

 

I read an article a while ago, unfortunately I can't find it to reference. In Australia the local power network can't handle the load even if bev's reaches 5% of the market

 

Hi everyone. It's really awful that prime and plug-in in europe goes without chademo... Anyway I've checked the part numbers and seems that the battery is ready for the DC charging.
PHV:

Prime:


More wires that lead to DC charging controller for PHV:

And nothing like that in Prime:


That's it. Battery part numbers are the same. so all the inlets should be there... Just need a PHV to take what you need.
Regarding the charge speed - 80+% of charge in 15 minutes. I've met a PHV owner in S-Pb.

 

[QUOTE="

That's it. Battery part numbers are the same. so all the inlets should be there... Just need a PHV to take what you need.
Regarding the charge speed - 80+% of charge in 15 minutes. I've met a PHV owner in S-Pb.[/QUOTE]

The only problem is that PHV is not sold in US market so you cannot find those parts salvaged. This option has been sold only in Japan if I'm not mistaken."

 

Correct. But you can ship it from there. In Russia we have Vladivostok, filled with wheel-in-glovebox cars =)

 

Ok so I live in BC Canada and we have free L3 charging stations everywhere and more popping up everyday. I was disappointed to learn that my car 2019 Prius Prime will not accept a L3 charger. I recently learned that outside North America the Primes will accept L3 chademo.
I would like to install the parts required to make this possible for my car. I believe the battery itself as well as the Battery temperature management systems would not change at all. The only reason it takes a NA Prime 2 hours and 10 mins to charge on L2 is because of the limitations of the charging circuit, the rectifier in the car is limited by how quickly it can convert AC to DC without overheating.
The Chademo delivers DC and therefore the cars onboard rectifier/charging circuitry need to dissipate much less power because there is no conversion process happening. The cars onboard circuitry only has to take the supplied DC and deliver it directly to the battery in a controlled fashion. In fact the NA Primes have the circuit for chademo built into the Negative Hybrid Battery Junction Block and the Positive Hybrid Battery Junction Block connection boards already existing but nothing is plugged into these two sockets.
You can see a detailed explanation here: Starting around 38:30

 

Support for DC charging, like many features, is a matter not only of parts and wiring but also of software.

Charging has to be enabled by the hybrid vehicle control ECU, to ensure that the car can’t be driven away while it’s connected to a charger, among other reasons, and I don’t know whether the software in the versions of that ECU installed on Prius Prime cars built for sale in the U.S. and Canada would allow DC charging. (Installing a Japanese version of the HV control ECU, assuming it would even work properly with the other ECUs on the car, would invalidate the emissions certification.)

I’m not sure how anyone outside of Toyota would be able to find out for sure, except by trying it. Toyota’s publications, understandably, aren’t concerned with mix-and-match scenarios: the English-language Repair Manual (more info) doesn’t cover DC charging at all, aside from a few unexplained Data List items such as “Charging System Starting Request from DC Quick Charging Control,” but the Electronic Technical Manual (電子技術マニュアル) for Prius PHV cars sold in Japan doesn’t cover cars built for other markets.

Consider, too, the possible loss of warranty coverage for the HV battery. The battery stack sub-assemblies may be the same as those on Prius PHV cars sold in Japan, but their durability when subjected to DC quick charging, in combination with other typical North American or European usage conditions, might not be sufficient to allow Toyota to offer, at an acceptable cost, the lengthy hybrid system warranties demanded by customers and regulators here. In my opinion, Toyota would be within its rights to deny a claim for an HV battery on a vehicle with any added charging capabilities.

 

So are you suggesting that the battery warranty in Japan might not be as lengthy as ours in NA since they have the ability to use CHAdeMO level 3 charging on the same battery? This meaning that the CHAdeMO charging would be hard on the battery and possibly shorten its life. These are good points and worth exploring. I have started a dedicated thread on the main Prime page to discuss this topic. I am willing to give it a try if I can reasonably get it all working. Protecting the warranty is not my number one concern but having the car function the way it was originally designed in Japan is my main priority.

 

It’s the other way around: for Toyota to get credit for selling a car that meets California’s zero-emission vehicle standards—which then lets them sell other, more profitable but more polluting vehicles—CARB requires a warranty of at least 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, for the HV battery. In contrast, in Japan, Toyota’s specific warranty (page in Japanese) for the HV battery and certain other parts runs for 5 years or 100,000 km: half the time and about 40% of the distance.

I’m suggesting that Toyota might have figured, with the CARB requirement as a given, that they’d sell more Prius Prime cars at the current price, without DC fast charging (which is optional even in Japan), than at the higher price that would be required, for the same profit margin, to provide the additional warranty reserve to cover the increased likelihood of HV battery replacement, under more intensive use, during the warranty period.

That’s not just my opinion: see this FAQ answer from Toyota in Japan (page in Japanese), which says that excessive fast charging (i.e., more than once or twice a day) might affect the battery life.

Then you shouldn’t modify the car at all: the Prius Prime model you have was designed and manufactured by Toyota in Japan to meet the needs of the North American market.

All that said, if you’d like to try to add CHAdeMO support, I’m sure PriusChat readers would be glad to know the outcome, either way. I’d suggest starting with a copy of the ZVW52 series Electronic Technical Manual disc from Japan, so you can compare the parts and wire harnesses in detail with those of the Prius Prime model.

 

sounds like no one has attempted this yet... standby.. working on it now.

 

Interesting topic all around.

I on the one hand don't care about fast charging at all. Zero. My fast charging is the regular at the pump with my Prime.

It has a state of the art 40% efficient engine!!!

I have a question though... has anyone gone ahead with a battery swap or upgrade yet??? My 2017 is starting to degrade to 21 to 22 mile range for this winter already. Likely due to me keeping the car 100% charged and often driving the miles down to 0% to 10%.

I am trying to leave right when the battery charges to 90% and come home with it at 20%.

 

toyota already has buffers at both ends. you don't need to regulate charging percentage manually.

avoiding long periods with the car sitting fully charged is toyotas only recommendation.

your battery probably isn't that bad, winter causes a great deal of reduced range for a few reasons.

the price of a new battery plus labor will likely change your mind.

 

Any update on this ?
with the arrival of DC to DC solar home fast charge possibility. It would be nice to have the additional access to a rechargeable Prime battery by starting the car during increasing weather related power outages. With all the CHAdeMO parts available in Japan it's a shame we can't get them in the west.

 

I did this with my Leaf many years ago. Today, you can do it modularly. As long as you have access to the DC side of the car you can buy rackmount solar inverters and battery chargers with external input and battery control for a second pack. Essentially if you plug in the car, it can be charged or be used as juice input just with some software config. Way cleaner and simpler than my hacks. And with CHAdeMO going extinct it makes more sense to future proof the physical input with a single rack unit.

 

still trying to obtain the Japan spec parts but... found one company that makes a kit to add chademo to a DIY EV buid and two others who manufacture the components. It looks like replacing the charger under the HV battery and the outlet are the two parts I am pushing them to hand over to me for research and development. This all was sidelined for a few weeks as I am finishing up installing 8.8kWh of batteries to replace the 4.4kWh battery modules.

Instagram
the above link is to my story highlights where ill be adding more of my research and development.

 

Good to know you're still working on it. Now that new home dc to dc solar EV chargers are available access to the rechargeable Prius battery makes this modification much more interesting, both from the fast charge value and as a backup emergency home power source.

 

Due to the large number of Nissan Leaf's and other vehicles with CHAdeMO charging I doubt CHAdeMO will go extinct in the near future. You are correct, however, the CCS-combo is expected to replace CHAdeMO eventually. (There is the emerging CHAdeMO ver.3 standard in China and Japan to consider, though.)

Of more interest is that in many areas Type 2 sockets supplying 22kW, 3-phase AC are becoming plentiful. These EVSE's are much cheaper and simpler than DC units e.g. CHAdeMO and CCS, and therefore the Type 2's will likely be more plentiful, cheaper, and more reliable than DC units. My Japanese imported, 2018 Gen2 Prius PHV has CHAdeMO already. It charges the battery from 0% to 80% in 15 or 16 minutes, which is approx.17kW DC. Since 22kW Type 2 AC delivers more power than the 17kW DC which our Prius PHV's can handle, then the question is how to get the 22kW AC converted to 17kW DC for use with CHAdeMO.

A handheld device has appeared for purchase through Alibaba, which does exactly this according to the advertising. Here is an image and link for the device:

Refer to: Type 2 Plug Socket 125a With Cable Sae J1772 For Electric Car Chademo To European Standard Type 2 Ev Charger Adapter - Buy Ev Charger Plug,Type2 Ev Charger Plug,Ev Charger Socket Product on Alibaba.com

This device would free vehicles with CHAdeMO from searching/waiting for available DC fast-charging stations and enable fast charging at 17kW in domestic settings at manageable cost. This would also circumvent the above-mentioned, possible disappearance of CHAdeMO stations since the future is likely to hold plenty of 22kW Type 2 sites as they are becoming the accepted standard for AC charging.

 

once its on aliexpress, then ill bite... this doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.