How about a cup of tea? The origins of fast-charging.
In short: In Japan, the name CHAdeMO is a polite invitation to have a cup of tea. This clever branding reflects the time it takes to charge an electric vehicle, but the technology behind it is anything but slow, offering a standardized way to power the future of mobility.
Created in 2010 by the CHAdeMO Association—an entity comprising five leading Japanese car manufacturers and Tokyo Electric Power Company—this standardises DC fast charging for various vehicle makes. Short for "CHArge de MOve", the title signifies "charge for moving" according to the group.
The technology has evolved through several generations. First-generation connectors could deliver up to 62.5 kW, adding roughly 120 kilometres of range in just half an hour. The second-generation specification, released in May 2018, allows for up to 400 kW by 1 kV. Looking ahead, the Association is co-developing a third-generation standard called "ChaoJi" with the China Electricity Council, aiming for a massive 900 kW.
Despite its early success and widespread deployment, CHAdeMO faces intense competition. In the European Union, the Combined Charging System (CCS) has been mandated for public infrastructure since 2014. In North America, the market has shifted toward Tesla's North American Charging System (NACS). While CHAdeMO remains popular in Japan, its presence in North America is shrinking; the Nissan Leaf was the last fully electric car in that market to feature it, as Nissan moves toward NACS for the 2026 model year. At present, only the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV features this standard within North America.
Beyond simple charging, the protocol supports Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) integration, allowing EVs to act as energy storage devices to optimize grid usage. This technology was published in 2014 and has been demonstrated in various global projects, such as UCSD INVENT in the United States and Sciurus in the United Kingdom.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: CHAdeMO
- Also: Scientific data — High-temporal-resolution dataset of uni-, bidirectional, and dynamic electric vehicle charging profiles. · CC BY
- Also: Nature communications — Deep learning predicts real-world electric vehicle direct current charging profiles and durations. · CC BY
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