No, Virginia, There may be (Technically) No Stage 3

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That is a type of nerdy subjects that doesn’t matter, and but, generally is a supply of ongoing debate. At the least, I intend to make it so even when I’m screaming into the void. That is going to be a little bit of a ramble, however hopefully you can see your self entertained and perhaps a bit extra educated in case you make it by means of.

As of us who’ve heard considered one of my EV talks, learn my weblog at Let’s Go Zero Carbon, or downloaded a model of my slide deck know, I prefer to nerd out on all issues EV, but in addition hold it easy and produce new individuals into the EV fold. An instance of nerding out is that, on my charging ranges slide, I not too long ago added overlay textual content of “DCFC” over “L3.” Why? I’m an engineer, and a number of other years in the past, my nerd sources identified that “Stage 3” refers to one thing completely different from widespread utilization of the time period in older variations of the SAE charging normal and has been utterly absent in latest variations going again to 2010.

Whereas researching for this text, I discovered “Stage 3 Is A Completely Legit Time period For DC Quick Charging,” by the all the time entertaining and informative Jennifer Sensiba on CleanTechnica. This text is from 2 years in the past, so I’m selecting up a reasonably chilly path right here, however that is only for debate leisure, so bear with me. Jennifer’s level may be summarized as “Everyone makes use of ‘degree 3’ to confer with DC quick charging and chargers, so subsequently it’s proper; recover from it.”

I really like language, significantly the best way it evolves to fulfill the wants of customers. However the engineering self-discipline makes use of language to create issues that may be manufactured repeatably and constructed up into methods that may be seamlessly interconnected. There is no such thing as a house for ambiguity of language in a technical normal. And sure, J-1772 (see beneath) is formally a technical normal. In reality, it was created to fulfill a necessity recognized by the California Air Assets Board (CARB), and that authorities entity drove it’s early improvement.

Some engineering requirements are mandated and issued by authorities entities, however there are numerous that we rely on that aren’t. If I need to design a bit of kit that has a USB port on it, I reference the USB normal, which is managed by a non-public sector trade consortium with no authorities mandate. So, yeah, official to an engineer doesn’t imply sourced from a authorities. And no, I received’t be utilizing Jennifer at CleanTechnica’s Normal Ranges of Charging to design a brand new electrical automobile or charger!

The motivation for this publish got here after I learn “Electrical Automobile Charging: The Fundamentals” by Bengt Halvorson on Inexperienced Automobile Studies. This text goes past the fundamentals to supply all the pieces a brand new EV proprietor must know earlier than venturing out and gaining their very own private expertise (what actually issues!) on day by day driving of an electrical automobile. However, in fact, Bengt makes use of L3 (Stage 3) and even states, “Within the curiosity of simplification L3 and DC quick charging are one and the identical.” And, in fact, if you will confer with Stage 3 EV charging in North America, that’s true! However the actuality is that Stage 3 isn’t outlined in latest variations of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) floor automobile normal Electrical Car and Plug-in Hybrid Electrical Car Conductive Cost Coupler (J-1772).

Beneath is a video recorded in 2019 by Professor John Kelly of Weber State College in Layton, UT. That is fairly technical, as you may see from the diagram within the YouTube preview. However the principle level for me is the title of the video. One factor I realized watching it’s that the J-1772 connector itself (with out the CCS DCFC pins 6 and seven) can be utilized to DC cost as much as 48 kW (80 amps at 600 volts).

If you wish to do a deeper dive and skim a number of the background on the J-1772 normal, as ordinary, the Wikipedia article is a reasonably good supply.