Charging has increasingly become a geographical and financial matter as e-mobility shifted from a niche product to the mass transit option of the future. Sungrow Power aims to answer this challenge with Destination Charging and a basic but reliable charging product range.
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During London EV Show 2022 Sungrow gave insights into their DC solution. Home charging is a great option for those who have a garage or designated parking space available. However, most people living in cities have neither of these. This is what makes destination charging, meaning charging electric vehicle at the driver’s stop-over, such as a grocery store, gym or the office, a good solution to boost electric driving. Particularly for shorter stops of up to an hour, a considerable amount of battery charge can be replenished without the need for a permanent personal charging solution. And this can be done without the need for the larger drain on the grid by means of high-power chargers and the expensive infrastructure surrounding them.
The London EV show is the UK’s leading platform for electric driving. Sungrow analysed the actual EV Charging situation and subsequently posed the question regarding the available grid capacity during their presentation. Nagla Kirkpatrick, one of the experts from Sungrow, explains that if all combustion-engine vehicles were suddenly replaced with BEVs, the UK would need about triple of the current capacity to charge them all at 7 kW. While the market for batteries has caught up to demand, charging infrastructure is not yet keeping up with the altering world of mobility, and a deficit of this scale will not be solved by Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology.
This is what Sungrow is aiming for with their Urban 30 kW DC charger solution. While the capacity is not sufficient to fully recharge a vehicle in a few minutes, as one might need at an HPC at a highway rest station, given a 1-2 hour window, most vehicles can charge a sufficient amount for a daily drive. For example, a Tesla Model 3 can charge for around 200 km range within an hour on a 30 kW charger.
Sungrow also addressed the question of affordability – home chargers involve installation and are subject to rising energy costs, while a more networked solution would help lower some of these associated costs, especially by combining them with other business opportunities. This would also help with the maintenance issue of the charging stations, as the existing grid has been found to be somewhat undermaintained on several occasions, further limiting possibilities for EV drivers to leave their home area, should they have a home charger.
Currently, less than 1% of UK grocery stores have their own charging ports, which all tend towards low charging capacities. With a number of 200,000 stores this would entail a lot of charging hours, which would be particularly valuable to those who do not have their own garage or permanent parking spot, for example. Commercial locations, such as stores, cinemas or gyms, could greatly benefit from increased traffic if drivers were motivated to leave their cars charging in the lot for longer. Sungrow estimates that the return of investments on offering free charging to customers would be recouped with an interest, as larger scale charging costs less per kW than a comparable smaller operation would. A helpful side-effect would be to leverage the perceived benefit for customers.
Regarding the user interfaces, the IDC30E has the latest CCS2 connector attached to a 5-metre cable. There is a 7-inch colour touch screen, and both wall and pole mounting is possible, making the new charging station suitable for public use. Sungrow also teased an expansion to their charging product lineup from 60 kW to 180 kW, which they plan to introduce next year at the Intersolar exhibition in Munich, Germany.
Sungrow has been a global player in the PV industry for 25 years and is also currently the largest inverter manufacturer on the planet. With the Group’s advance into e-mobility, it presented a unique DC charging station for Europe. The IDC30E is designed for “one-hour destination-charging” – at a distinctive 30 kW with IP65, below 50dB, and 10 years lifetime. The ten-year extended warranty does come at an extra price, however it is the only such long-lived offer on the market, according to Sungrow.
About Sungrow Charging
Driven by the vision of “Clean power for all” and recognizing the megatrend of integration of renewable energy, electric mobility and electrification, Sungrow took the first steps of developing its very own charger products back in 2017 aiming to be the leading company in yet another power electronics business. Relying on 25 years of experience in the design, manufacturing and application of outdoor electrical equipment and underpinned by profound understanding of power electronics, Sungrow Charging has set out launching an array of AC and DC charging solutions with a laser-sharp focus on creating products that are reliable, efficient and user-friendly.
Learn more about Sungrow on en.sungrowpower.com
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Keyword: Sungrow Power takes aim for European destination charging at the London EV Show