Charging an electric car – with smart solutions and intelligent charging cables

The development of smart charging solutions has picked up speed in recent years. There are new ideas about how EV charging could become even smarter in future – with the aid of intelligent charging cables, among other things. So far, you need different cables with a special connector for wallboxes, public charging points, or household sockets.

Public charging stations generally use Mode 3 charging cables with two Type 2 plugs for European electric cars. On the other hand, your home socket works with a Mode 2 charging cable. And it’s different again for wallboxes.. In future, the solution could lie in more flexible charging cables – i.e. one cable with one connector that works with all types of charging. And, in the years ahead, could there perhaps be charging cables that detect how much power the electric car needs? Yes, there could! Cables with an integrated electricity meter, for instance, which register charging processes and transfer the data to a billing system via the mobile communication network, are no pipe dream.

Smart charging technology and even more electricity from renewable sources: E‑mobility is becoming more and more eco-friendly.

These days, drivers wishing to top up their electric car on route can increasingly benefit from intelligent solutions. The expansion of a dense public network of ultra-fast charging stations could become a reality much faster than was previously thought. This is because Volkswagen and E.ON are working on a new, flexible ultra-fast charging point. These charging stations will be installed using the plug-and-play principle: set up, connect, configure online. The advantage is that two electric cars can be charged simultaneously with an output of up to 150 kilowatts, depending on their charging capacity. In addition, we now also have mobile charging stations where you can charge your electric car regardless of the available charging infrastructure – at a hotel, at work, or travelling on holiday.

Experts are working continuously to improve charging speed and make charging at home even more intelligent and convenient. New on the scene are the Audi e-tron models, which can charge twice as quickly. The new connect charging system is designed for up to 22 kW and can be installed in your garage. As it was designed to be connected to power sockets, it is also suitable for mobile use.

First, some background information: smart, flexible charging is essential if you want to monitor your own charging behaviour, make it as efficient as possible, and minimise the risk of grid bottlenecks. If everyone charges their electric car at night, for example, this could put more strain on the grid. Therefore, it's vital that electric cars and charging stations can react to special situations. This could be achieved by new, intelligent solutions that automatically increase charging capacity when the grid has sufficient reserves, or reduce charging capacity when the load on the grid increases. To sum up, smart charging solutions will allow everyone to charge their electric car at any time, in any place, as efficiently as possible.