Written by Nigel Dawbarn, Sales & Marketing Manager – Industry Management and E-Mobility
The world is a fast paced place, with so much available on demand we are no longer used to waiting! And with time being money we cannot afford to be waiting for hours for our vehicles to charge to carry on our journeys or deliveries.
Phoenix Contact has recently launched the Universal Inlet for use in passenger cars but also for many commercial and industrial vehicles. Imagine road sweepers, refuse trucks, buses larger trucks and delivery vans (and don’t forget the motorcycle!) all being available in electric form in the coming years, our air quality will see a massive improvement when these vehicles are being used in our towns and cities. But how can we reduce the time needed to charge these vehicles?
As part of the Phoenix Contact CHARX product range the new Generation 4 Vehicle Inlet enables high power charging on the vehicle side by using optimised temperature sensor technology offering reliable temperature monitoring at the contacts within the inlet. The temperature can be monitored and the power reduced when reaching the maximum allowed. This allows the charge point to deliver up to 500A for a period of time enabling faster charging.
The new vehicle inlet is part of the CHARX Connect family which also includes the HPC liquid cooled cable and connector which is rated to 500A and 1000v, so the combination of these products means charging in a matter of minutes rather than hours.
The Universal Inlet in CCS form offers AC charging functionality as well enabling 32A charging on the CCS Type 2 version and 80A on the CCS Type 1. If you are building vehicle for the European and US markets the Inlet has the same fixed points so you can easily convert from one market to the other.
There are three versions in the range which offer continuous charging at 125A, 200A and 250A. All can accept higher currents to speed up your vehicle charging, but must have this power reduced when getting close the maximum temperature allowed.
For more information, contact Nigel Dawbarn on 07584 514958 or email ndawbarn@phoenixcontact.com
