France says ‘au revoir’ to CHAdeMO, the EV charging standard

Is this the beginning of the end for the CHAdeMO electric vehicle charging standard? Its days certainly look numbered, in France at least.

Earlier this month, the French government amended a 2017 regulation, ending the requirement that all new DC fast-chargers must offer a CHAdeMO connector.

Instead, all new chargers will have to offer the significantly more widely used CCS connector for fast DC charging or Type 2 connector for standard AC charging.

[Read: This dude drove an EV from the Netherlands to New Zealand — here are his 3 top road trip tips]

While CHAdeMO is no longer a legal requirement, it hasn’t been outright banned.

EV charging providers can still provide a CHAdeMO charger if they want, although, there seems to be no point as the CCS standard is far more popular in Europe.

CHAdeMO was created by a consortium of Japanese carmakers, and as such, tends to be quite popular on EVs from the country.

The Nissan Leaf is one of the few popular EVs in Europe to have the CHAdeMo charger.

However, Nissan is now moving away from the standard. Its upcoming Ariya electric SUV — Nissan’s first EV in 10 years — will adopt the CCS connector instead. Suggesting the end is nigh for CHAdeMO.

France’s regulatory move isn’t exactly a death knell for the EV charging standard, though. It seems CHAdeMO will fall away slowly into nothingness as manufacturers favor CCS. It’s HD DVD and Blu-ray all over again.

Or maybe CHAdeMO will be one of those quirky things they only have in Japan.

HT – Electrive

Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up? 

Then you need the weekly SHIFT newsletter in your life. Click here to sign up.