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BELMONT, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/10/13 -- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and Eaton today celebrated the debut of one of the country's first single-port Combined Charging System (CCS) electric vehicle chargers at the Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Belmont, Calif. Capable of recharging most electric vehicles with compatible systems in as little as 30 minutes, the installation of the new charger is the beginning of the new CCS-compliant single-port fast charging infrastructure development in the United States and Europe.

The CCS charge point meets the approved Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standard for plug-in electric vehicles. The system utilizes a single-port and integrates one-phase AC charging, fast three-phase AC charging, DC charging at home and ultra-fast DC charging at public stations. The efficient design optimizes customer ease-of-use with a single standard that will allow EV customers to not only charge at most existing stations, but also improve customer convenience by offering a single source for various charging levels.

"The Volkswagen Group is fully committed to supporting the worldwide introduction of the Combined Charging System standard," said Dr. Rudolpf Krebs, Chief Officer for Electric Traction, Volkswagen Group. "To fuel the market success of electric vehicles, a standardized infrastructure is urgently needed to provide customers with entry into this new drive technology."

"In comparison to other charging standards, CCS offers advantages because it requires only one cut out in the vehicle body, thus reducing costs and making it easier for customers to handle charging," said Dr. Volkmar Tanneberger, Head of Electrics/Electronics Development, Volkswagen AG. "Moreover, CCS enables optimal data communication and can be quickly adapted to potential smart grid concepts in the future. With the ability to handle up to 86 kW, CCS is the most powerful charging system available."

"Eaton's collaboration with Volkswagen Group on the development and validation of the Combined Charging System demonstrates our commitment to the introduction of this new standard," said John Wirtz, business unit manager, Electric Transportation Infrastructure, Eaton. "Our development and implementation of the CCS Quick Charger supports our on-going efforts to move this market forward."

Eaton DC Quick Charger
The state-of-the-art DC Quick Charger features the CCS charge connector and communicates with the electric vehicle's battery management system to provide direct current flow to charge the battery. This direct communication between charger and battery enables an 80 percent recharge to the electric vehicle battery in as few as 30 minutes.

The 50 kW charger housing consists of five individual 10 kW power drawers providing the flexibility to offer a 20 kW, 30 kW, 40 kW or 50 kW configuration. In the event the output is reduced due to the failure of one power drawer, the DCQC has N-1 capability, which allows the charger to remain operational.

Combined Charging System standard
First introduced in March 2012 at EVS26, the system has been chosen by the Society of International Engineers as the single-port fast charging method as its standard for fast charging. SAE selected the system as the fast-charging methodology for a standard that incrementally extends existing Type 1-based AC-charging while the European manufacturing association (ACEA) has endorsed the harmonization of the system for all electric vehicle types in Europe.