Combo Coupler

The Combined Charging System is a quick charging method for battery electric vehicles delivering high-voltage direct current via a special electrical connector derived from the SAE J1772 (IEC Type 1) or IEC Type 2 connector. As the plug is a combination of an AC connector with a DC option the resulting connector is also called Combo Coupler and the variant with Type 2 is abbreviated as Combo2.

Automobile manufactures that support CCS include: Volkswagen, General Motors, BMW, Daimler, Ford, FCA, Tesla and Hyundai. The CharIN consortium that controls the CCS standard is working on a charging rate of 350 kW beginning in 2017.

In the United States, BMW and VW claim that the East Coast and West Coast corridors have complete CCS networks.

Competing standards include CHAdeMO and Tesla Supercharger.

The revival of interest in electric cars brought about a need for a recharging network. Charging station deployment proliferated to fulfil this need - in the beginning these were accessing the abundant AC mains electricity using a variety of plugs throughout the world. The standardization in the IEC 62196 for higher current charging connectors brought about different systems with Type 1 being used primarily in Northern America and Japan and variants of Type 2 being used elsewhere. The SAE and ACEA want to avoid a similar situation for outstanding standardization of DC charging - they developed the plan to add common DC wires to the existing AC connector types such that there is only one "global envelope" that fits all DC charging stations.

On the 15th International VDI-Congress of the Association of German Engineers the proposal of a "Combined Charging System" (CCS) was unveiled on 12. October 2011 in Baden-Baden. Seven car makers (Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen) have agreed to introduce the Combined Charging System in mid-2012. This defines a single connector pattern on the vehicle side that offers enough space for a Type 1 or Type 2 connector along with space for a two pin DC connector allowing up to 200 Ampere. The prototype implementations for up to 100 kW were shown on the EVS26 in Los Angeles in May 2012. Specifications for DC charging in the IEC 62196-3 draft give a range up to 125 A with up to 850 V.

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