In conjunction with EVS30, the biggest EV-related conference, the 8th Annual Member Meeting was held in Stuttgart, Germany, 11 October. With over 70 participants from 45 members across the EV sector, it was a valuable occasion to bring together the leading stakeholders and discuss the current and future EV development.
The first speaker was Takafumi Anegawa, Representative Director, CHAdeMO, the founding father of the CHAdeMO protocol, who has come back as the Representative Director of the Association. Looking back on the electric journey of CHAdeMO, he reviewed the history of CHAdeMO and discussed where CHAdeMO aims to go. His inspirational speech was followed by the discussion session with Dave Makoto Yoshida, Secretary General of CHAdeMO Association, who touched on the CHAdeMO strategy in a Q&A-format.
Next was Ravi Subramaniam, Technical Director, ICAP, IEEE, who had just flown in. Ravi gave an overview of the IEEE’s Conformity Assessment Program (ICAP) and invited CHAdeMO’s members to the IEEE 2030.11 Conformity Assessment Steering Committee (CASC), which shall discuss fast charging conformity assessment process, test plans, and certification policies in North America.
Three of the CHAdeMO new members briefly introduced their activities: SCAME, PR Electronics and Polish Automotive Group, before concluding the morning session with updates by Tomoko Blech, Secretary General, CHAdeMO Europe, on the European market development. She has demonstrated with data that multi-standard fast charging stations, equipped with both CHAdeMO and CCS connectors, are the de facto standard in Europe since 2014.
The afternoon session started from Bastien Batt, Nissan Automotive Europe, to present the concept and features of the long-awaited new Nissan Leaf, which was also present at the CHAdeMO stand at EVS30. Adam Woolway, Founder & MD, PlugSurfing, drew the participants’ attention to the EV drivers’ perspective on charging services, sharing first-hand data on their charging behaviours. In the presentation by Dieter Kehren, Project Manager, EEBus Initiative e.V., he emphasised that CHAdeMO and EEBUS have complementary scopes of application and would be ideal partners, by benefiting the networks of each other.
V2X was another important topic on CHAdeMO’s agenda, as Tomoko Blech, Secretary General, CHAdeMO Europe, gave a presentation at the EVS30 Symposium titled “V2X protocol: benefits and world-wide applications.” Furthermore, during the All-Member meeting Marc Trahand, COO Europe, Nuvve, Presented to the CHAdeMO members their V2X-related projects, including the ones in Denmark, UK and USA. He also shared his perspective on the need to further extend CHAdeMO functions for the future (and better) implementation of V2G technology.
Rajendra Chougule, Tata Consultancy Services, spoke about the details of their newly developed CHAdeMO protocol testing tool, which was also on display on the CHAdeMO stand at EVS30. Lastly, Giovanni Goppola, Program Manager, ENEL, introduced the EU-supported E-VIA FLEX-E Project, which is expected to pilot the development of a long-distance ultra high power charging infrastructure for EVs in France, Italy and Spain.
The participation rate was exceptionally high this year given the recent push on the advancement of electro-mobility on all fronts, and they have appreciated the opportunity to learn about the recent developments of CHAdeMO’s activities and strategies, as well as the presentations from a wide variety of e-mobility stakeholders. The Meeting reinforced networking among various players in the domain and confirmed the strong foothold of the Association in the future development of the European e-mobility market.
