CHAdeMO charging protocol for DC fast chargers can now be certified by third party organisations.

CHAdeMO charging protocol for DC fast chargers can now be certified by third party organisations. Applus+ IDIADA is the first certification body in Europe to be accredited by CHAdeMO Association for both 0.9 and 1.0 CHAdeMO processes. This is an important step in the Association’s history, as it demonstrates the maturity of its technology with established certification criteria that are conducted by third-party certification bodies as well as its readiness to accommodate a greater number of requests for charger certification in a speedy manner.

Today we count over 3,600 CHAdeMO chargers produced by 40+ charger manufacturers already in place and servicing over 136,000 EV drivers in the world. Feedbacks from these users, charger operators and manufacturers have been continuously incorporated in the quality and certification process of the CHAdeMO technology in the past five years. While CHAdeMO is proud of its impeccable record of reliability and safety of the CHAdeMO certified chargers, all the certification tests of CHAdeMO chargers were conducted by a small team of the Association based in Japan, which posed a constraint in its capacity.

CHAdeMO Association has been working on establishing a more sustainable and expandable third-party certification process, and announced to its members last month that five organisations were registered as the official CHAdeMO certifying bodies: Applus+ IDIADA (Spain), Intertek (Japan), TERTEC (Taiwan), TUV Rheinland Japan (Japan), and UL Japan (Japan).

With this, charger manufacturers can now select one of the above registered certifying bodies, while the certification technical group of CHAdeMO Association, in collaboration with the registered certifying bodies, concentrates on quality control and updates of the test specifications. This will ensure faster CHAdeMO charger certifications, in preparation for the acceleration of EV uptake.

Applus+ IDADA, the first European certification body accredited to perform the CHAdeMO certification process, conducts their protocol tests at their Technical Centre near Barcelona, Spain. Their experts have developed an in-house EV charging simulator: a compact testing machine with an excellent user interface that can, thanks to the automatic evaluation system, efficiently run all the required test patterns to validate the reactions of a fast charger according to the CHAdeMO specifications. This simulator can test both the control patterns and the communication protocols of a fast charger. Given the spacious workshop, it is also capable of hosting a connection test with a car inside the workshop.

Klaus Kersting, Product Manager for EV/HEV Powertrain at Applus+ IDIADA said that “the electric vehicle is a reality, and at IDIADA we have to be at the forefront of all EV technologies in order to fulfill our clients’ requirements”. CHAdeMO Association’s Takeshi Haida, Accreditation Program Technical Manager, after having evaluated the premises and the testing procedure of Applus+ IDIADA’s simulator lab said that CHAdeMO Association was “pleased to confirm that the quality of the EV simulator as well as the competence of IDIADA’s staff prove satisfactory for CHAdeMO certification.”