Japan and China challenge German carmakers’ favourite e-car charging technology

An agreement reached by Japan and China to set up a common standard for e-car charging technology could topple the Combined Charging System technology pushed for by German car companies, Welt Online reports. Japanese consortium Chademo and the China Electricity Council (CEC) want to develop a more powerful charging technology with a capacity beyond 500 kilowatts (KW) that would be capable of fully charging even the largest e-car batteries within just a few minutes and is supposed to be ready by 2020. “The Sino-Japanese cooperation shifts the balance of power in the automotive industry,” the article says. If this new technology becomes dominant in China at the expense of the Combined Charging System, “this would reduce [the German companies’] prospect of becoming a world market leader.”

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector and the article Economy minister Altmaier calls for mobility transition push.