The frustration of slow electric car charging is now being felt by many, but Volkswagen may have a solution to that - a fast direct current (DC) home charging wallbox.
Twice as fast
Most home chargers run on conventional alternating current (AC) electricity, and have a maximum output of between 7.4kW and 11kW - fine if you only want to charge slowly overnight, but not so great if you need to nip home for a quick top-up before a longer journey. Volkswagen's new 22kW DC home charger could unlock a little more capability from your driveway, not to mention businesses looking to provide rapid charging for customers.
Mark Möller, head of the Technical Development & Electric Mobility division: "An extensive and needs-based charging structure is the key to the success of electric vehicles. That is why we are working on various approaches that enable customer-oriented, intelligent and flexible charging. Like our flexible quick charging station and the visionary prototype of a mobile charging robot, the DC wallbox is one of the future innovations of the DC charging family for electric vehicles."
Directly into the battery
What happens when you use an AC charger is that the current coming into the car from the plug must go through the car's own onboard AC charger, which limits charging speeds. A DC charger sidesteps that, like a public fast-charging point, and pumps current directly into the battery. Volkswagen's design works at around twice the speed of a conventional home charger, and the company claims that "The charging process can therefore be significantly shortened."
The wallbox is also already being fitted with technology that would allow for bi-directional charging - allowing the national grid to buy and draw spare energy stored in your car's battery at peak power demand times, and then sell it back to you later at the cheap rate.
Pilot testing phase
In order to gather experience with the new product, Volkswagen Group Components has started the pilot phase at its own factory sites in Wolfsburg, Braunschweig, Hannover, Salzgitter and Kassel with 20 DC wallboxes. This also means that the existing charging infrastructure will be expanded at the factory grounds.