In today’s charging industry, lack of reliability, complex charging experiences, and insufficient return on investment (ROI) are three key challenges for EV owner/operators and fleets that hinder large-scale deployment of charging infrastructure.
ABB E-mobility‘s new A400 All-in-One charger offers the highest power density with the smallest footprint, offering a holistic, user-centric design, industrialized modularity and system engineering, and a telecom-level approach to asset management.
Today, charging success rates are often mediocre, sometimes below 70%. When approaching a charger, drivers of private or commercial vehicles are often confused about how to use the chargers, face payment issues that block the charging process, and think their vehicle is charging when it’s not.
The A400 seeks to improve the overall charging process by creating clarity and reducing friction points between car, charger, and payment systems. With its intuitive user interface displayed on a large 32-inch screen, the A400 is made to be as easy and familiar to use as your smartphone. It guides the user step-by-step, confirming the charging status and completion of the charging process with the ambition of a 99% charging success rate.
With its Cloud-based asset management toolchain, the A400 can manage charging assets at the highest level, where reliability, scalability, interoperability, security, and performance play an important role. This means that the A400 comes with 24/7 asset management service-level agreements (SLAs) that target 99% charging success rates, as well as 97% uptime and fast service response times.
For many fleets and owner/operators, the focus in recent years has been mainly on installing power, asking “How much installed power do I get for my money?” The result has been a pursuit of quantity over quality. ABB E-mobility designed the A400 intending to achieve a 10-year product lifetime, high reliability — and, most importantly, enable customers to sell energy at the lowest cost, improving the customer’s bottom line.
In addition, the dynamic power-sharing, with a granularity of 50 kW, helps to take different charging patterns into account. In-house built silicon carbide-based power modules, maximum efficient air cooling, and a highly industrialized system design deliver the required reliability.
ABB E-mobility is the first to implement two-phase cooling technology (liquid to vapour to liquid) into a charging connector capable of up to 600 amperes of peak current. This patented technology is more reliable and efficient, with a lower maintenance cost than traditional liquid cooled cable solutions.
“The A400 has been designed from the ground up as a system for the reliable and cost-effective delivery of energy, enabling our customers to operate their network at the highest level and achieve their desired economic outcome,” said Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “At ABB E-Mobility, we have taken key lessons from our extensive experience and are obsessed with creating a charging experience that is reliable, scalable, managed, and secure, while ensuring interoperability and performance.”
What the A400 delivers:
- Two charging ports provide 200 kW of continuous charging power for up to two vehicles (400 kW for a single vehicle) compliant with all applicable governmental requirements and funding parameters in the US and Europe.
- Silicon-carbide power modules developed and produced in-house are arranged in modular 100 kW blocks, allowing two vehicles to be charged simultaneously in 50-kW increments and ensure that only the required power is drawn, and less unsold capacity remains.
- The first to implement two-phase cooling technology (liquid to vapour to liquid) into a charging connector capable of up to 600 amperes of peak current. This patented technology is more reliable and efficient, with lower maintenance cost than traditional liquid cooled cable solutions.
- Payment flow integrated into the charger’s user interface enables hassle-free payment transactions and eliminates one of the main causes for low charging success rates: a lack of interoperability with third-party payment systems.
- Lean design techniques and modularization lead to fewer parts, enable extensive subsystem testing, facilitate the maintenance and repair of the system, while improving serviceability and durability.
- A compact footprint with maximally optimized airflow ensures higher power charging sessions and long-term reliability.
- Performance-based SLAs based on a new asset management toolchain in conjunction with a streamlined service process will lead to high charging success rates and availability as well as faster service response times.
This charger will be publicly viewable for the first time at ACT Expo 2024 , from May 20th to 23rd in Las Vegas. Visit ABB E-mobility’s Booth #3800.
Filed Under: Charging, Technology News