In March, Toyota Motor Corporation, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., and Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. had formally established “CHAdeMO Association.” Mr. Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of TEPCO, was inaugurated as the first president of CHAdeMO. At the time 158 business entities and government bodies including 20 foreign companies from multiple sectors such as automakers, electric utility companies, charger and component manufacturers, charging service providers, etc. joined the Association. The Association aimed to support the diffusion of electric vehicles, which would contribute to reduction of CO2 emissions in the transport sector, and to take an active role in the standardisation of EV charging protocols.

In July, the first CHAdeMO Europe meeting was held, in which a decision was made to establish the European steering committee led by PSA, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Think, Endesa, ESB, ABB and the City of Amsterdam.

In March, the number of charger manufacturers that developed and offered CHAdeMO DC quick chargers increased from 5 to over 20 world-wide. As a result, the number of installed chargers reached 582 in Japan and 41 in other countries. Major models using the charger were Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s i-MiEV and Fuji Heavy Industries’ Subaru Plug-in Stella, Nissan Motor Company’s newly-released LEAF, Peugeot iON and Citroen C-ZERO.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, the need for EV battery as back-up power source during a power failure heightened. With the increasing integration of renewable energy sources in the power mix world-wide, the additional value of EV as enabler for peak shaving and as back-up energy source attracted further attention. In October, the Association started a V2H extension work group to develop bi-directional charging specifications using the CHAdeMO DC charging interface.

As fast charger network expanded, the Association studied the feasibility of the “membership” business model to evaluate how to reduce the initial investment costs in EV charger. Upon completion of the study, in December 2011, several DC fast charging service companies using this model were established.

Since the launch of CHAdeMO fast chargers in 2010, they have been steadily growing in numbers and expanding geographically. From March 2010 to March 2012, member companies grew from 158 to 429 with  international regular member segment showing the highest growth rate, confirming the global appeal of CHAdeMO protocol.

In January, CHAdeMO protocol ver. 1.0 was published. Also in October, products using the DC discharge function (V2X) based on the CHAdeMO protocol were developed and put into practical use, such as Nissan’s LEAF to HOME and Mitsubishi Motors’ MiEV Power BOX. The Association set up a WG to formulate the common specifications for the system interface in coordination with the relevant parties.

With increased charger installation, the importance of sharing charger information became a common concern to charging infrastructure stakeholders. Amidst this backdrop, CHAdeMO Association has set up its Location Information WG. In March 2013, we started sharing key information on charging stations in the CSV format on the CHAdeMO Association website.

METI launched a large-scale project named “Next Generation Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Deployment Promotion Project,” using 100 billion JPY of supplementary budget for Fiscal Year 2012. With the objective of strategic and quick deployment of charging infrastructure, this project has encouraged municipalities and motorway operating organisations in Japan to issue charger deployment plans, which were made public in April 2013. In addition to the government support, in July 2013, four automakers – Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi Motors, announced the launch of the “PHV/PHEV/EV Charging Infrastructure Promotion Project.” However, as these projects were quite large-scale, many municipalities were not able to follow through on the concrete installation plan within the initially set time frame. As a result, a one-year extension to the original February 2014 deadline for application for these funds was agreed.

In September, a CHAdeMO-coloured C-ZERO ran 1,000 km over 4 days in the South-West of France, covering around 325 km per day. As a part of the EV rally, Tour Poitou-Charentes, which covered 350 km over 2 days, the CHAdeMO team upped the challenge by driving 650 km 100% electrically, from the start of the rally and back, using the fast chargers available along the way and reporting on the adventure in real-time through social media. The trip demonstrated that driving long distances in an EV that has about 120km of autonomy was possible with CHAdeMO chargers. A number of regional and specialist media outlets wrote about CHAdeMO team’s challenge.

By March, the count for CHAdeMO chargers reached 1,000 in Europe. The European Union has decided to embrace multistandard charging in their final wording of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure directive. The adoption of multistandard charging followed and confirmed the market trend. The standards related to DC charging were approved by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and published as IEC61851‐23/24 and IEC62196-3 from March to July in 2014. These standards define the DC charging system, digital communication and connector specifications.

The four vehicle manufacturers – Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi Motors – announced the launch of the “PHV, PHEV and EV Charging Infrastructure Assistance Project”.  In May 2014 Nippon Charge Service LLC (NCS) was established, with additional funding from the Development Bank of Japan Inc., Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc., and Chubu Electric Power Company, Inc. The new company compensated for the installation cost, which was not fully covered by government subsidies, and provided car owners with a universally-accepted charging card, enabling them to use all chargers in the NCS charging station network. The system was expected to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure.

The CHAdeMO Team joined the world’s biggest EV rally ‘the WAVE Trophy’. The Team, led by the European Secretariat, traversed Germany, Austria and Switzerland, driving 2,000 km in total over 10 days, 100% electrically. The team was supported in its mission of promoting fast charging by a portable CHAdeMO charger from a Swiss member company EVTEC, which was placed on board a CHAdeMO-compatible Peugeot PARTNER. With an additional mission of providing fast charging top-up to 11 CHAdeMO-compatible EVs participating in the rally along the way, the team clocked in 66 charging sessions in total and helped two teams gain 2nd and 3rd places in the ‘Popular WAVE’ category, showcasing in real-life the benefits of fast charging.

Following the IEC standardisation, JIS D61851-23/24 and JIS D62196-3 were published in Japan in October 2014. In Europe, the IEC standards have been adopted as EN standards (EU) as well as EU member states’ national standards, such as DIN standards (Germany) and BS standards (UK). In North America, DC charging standard 2030.1.1TM-2015 was published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), based on the IEC standards, in March 2016.

In September, CHAdeMO technical specification version 1.1 was released. The changes included:

• Dynamic control of maximum charging current, which allows the charger to dynamically change the available output current during charging.
• Requirement for small diameter charging cable to accommodate for low-capacity DC chargers that provide advantages such as user-friendliness.
• Manufacturers’ optional codes, which enable vehicle and charger manufacturers to have their own unique functions using the CHAdeMO interface.
• The emergency stop button will no longer be obligatory. In version 1.1, it will simply be described as something to “follow standards and regulations of the country/region”. However, this will not be applied to 0.9 chargers, i.e. this does not authorise modification of 0.9 chargers regarding the emergency stop button.

In December, CHAdeMO Association and its members celebrated the mark of 10,000 CHAdeMO charge points globally. Result of collaboration among electricity providers, automakers, operators and hardware manufacturers, the achievement was an important milestone in the development of the protocol and a sign of its growing global recognition.