EC Moves Toward Standardizing EV Recharging Hardware

BRUSSELS – The European Commission agrees on what the electric-vehicle industry in France and Germany could not, recommending German technology for 795,000 EV recharging stations it wants to see installed by 2020.

The decision on standardization is a relief to auto makers such as Renault that are counting on EVs to prop up their competitiveness, even though Renault’s first four EVs were developed with Type 3 plugs, rather than the Type 2 favored by the EC.

“The Type 2 is the most-used plug in Europe,” Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas says. “Simply, we made a choice. It is not a big problem to adjust to this choice.”

He says existing recharging points using other electrical standards will wear out within 10 years, “so then they can change for the Type 2 or harmonized plug.”

Both Type 2 and Type 3 plugs can handle single and 3-phase recharging. The Type 3 used in France has shutters on the socket, like all normal outlets in the country, to make it difficult to do something ill-advised, such as stick a nail inside.

The Type 1 plug, used in the U.S. and Japan, is only for single-phase charging, which is slower than 3-phase. The argument for Type 2 is that the sockets are dead when not plugged in, so shutters aren’t needed.

With the plug-and-socket question on its way to resolution, the EC expects swifter development of the EV infrastructure.

Today, the 27 countries in the European Union have 11,749 recharging points, ranging from more than 5,000 in France (including those dedicated to the Paris Autolib car-sharing program) to none in Sweden.

The targeted 795,000 units would include stations in every country, and the EC wants 10% of them made available to the public.

The EC also proposes goals for other alternative fuels: liquefied-natural-gas units at 139 European ports for ships and canal boats and such stations for trucks every 240 miles (400 km); hydrogen stations with a common fueling standard in the 14 countries that now have such stations; and compressed-natural-gas stations every 90 miles (150 km).

Today, LNG is available in only three ports and 38 stations for trucks, and CNG is used by only 0.5% of cars, while the European goal is 5% of the fleet.

"Developing innovative and alternative fuels is an obvious way to make Europe's economy more resource-efficient, to reduce our overdependence on oil and develop a transport industry which is ready to respond to the demands of the 21st century,” Kallas says.

“Between them, China and the U.S. plan to have more than 6 million electric vehicles on the road by 2020. This is major opportunity for Europe to establish a strong position in a fast-growing global market.”

If Europe does not move in this direction, he says, “then the Europe fuel market is always vulnerable and open to speculations and shocks.”

Reaching the goals outlined would cost €8 billion ($10.8 billion), compared with the €1 billion ($1.35 billion) Europe spends daily to import petroleum products, Kallas predicts. He says some EU money is available, and parts of the goal can be reached by countries making local rules, such as the proposal in France that new parking garages have recharging points.