With the increasingly stringent
CO2 regulations and demand for more
environmentally-friendly vehicles, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are at
the advent of permeating through the mass market and is poised to
take over its inefficient, gasoline-powered predecessor.
According to Pike Research (July 2012), EV revenue in Europe is
estimated to grow from €72 million in 2012 to more than €1 billion
by 2020 further supporting its bright potential in the automotive
industry. Although EVs have progressively improved to be able to
travel further, faster and more cost-efficiently, the relatively
lengthy charging times remained as an obstacle for its
implementation and practicality.
At the Tokyo Smart Grid Exhibition
in June 2010, Fujikura introduced its high-power EV connector and
cable for ultra-fast DC charging reducing charging times to less
than half an hour - dramatically improving the practicability of
EVs. The assembly is compliant with the CHAdeMO* standard which is
set to be the dominant standard for EV chargers evidenced by the
backing of 33 manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and
Mitsubishi. There are also more than 1500 CHAdeMO chargers already
installed around the world and Electric Cars such as the Nissan
Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiE further illustrating the
tremendous momentum of support the standard is generating.
*"CHAdeMO" is an abbreviation for
"CHArge de Move", equivalent to "Charge for moving", which is being
proposed globally as an industry standard for EV charging.
For more information regarding the
CHAdeMO association and standards, please visit: http://www.chademo.com/
