SMA introduces a new smart car charger
New on the market: the SMA eCharger, a charging station for electric cars with 3 ways to charge the car, a card reader to prevent improper use and in the future an option for bi-directional charging.SMA has introduced a new charging station for electric cars, the SMA eCharger. The device offers many of the same options as the current SMA EV charger 7.4 and 22, but adds a few more on top. What is special about this charging station?
3 charging modes
The new SMA eCharger charging station for homes with solar panels
Just like the current SMA charging station, this new eCharger offers three ways to charge the car: with only surplus solar power; with a predefined charging target; or simply as fast as possible. For the second option, the SMA Energy app is used to set the charging target. The Sunny Home Manager will then ensure that the car is charged with as much solar power as possible. If the available solar power is not sufficient, power is drawn from the grid, taking into account peak and off-peak rates if specified.
Enter the charging target via the SMA Energy app on your mobile phone
The combination with the Sunny Home Manager is important: it also helps with the so-called ‘blackout protection’. This means that the main circuit breaker in the home is always protected. If you set the charging station to ‘fast charging’ and therefore let it charge at maximum power, and simultaneously switch on other power guzzlers in the home, then there may be a risk that too much current flows through the main fuse, causing it to ‘blow’. Thanks to the fact that the Home Manager measures the current at the main fuse, the charging station will receive a signal in such a case to immediately reduce the charging power. In this way, there is never a risk of a ‘blackout’ in the home.
A new feature of the charging station is the RFID chip reader. This means that the charging station works with a card system, just like the charging stations on public roads. Only people with a registered charging card can unlock the system: this prevents improper use by third parties, which is especially useful if the charging station is located somewhere where other people can easily access it. A maximum of 3 eChargers can be installed in a home: that's why this device is mainly suitable for residential users and not so much for companies or large apartment buildings.
Bi-directional charging
A very interesting (future) feature is the fact that this charging station is 'bi-di ready'. 'Bi-di' means 'bi-directional', in other words: the charging station can not only charge the car, but also discharge it. In this way, the car battery can be used as a kind of home battery in which excess solar power is stored during the day, and made available to the home in the evening after sunset.
However, there are currently still some caveats regarding this functionality. First of all, it is not yet completely ready; technically, the charging station is ready for bi-directional charging, but it still requires a software update to make it work. This software update is not ready yet, and you need to be aware that it will cost some money. We don't yet know exactly how high the cost will be, but in any case a kind of license will have to be purchased to unlock the feature once the software is ready.
It's also good to know that this concerns ‘AC bi-directional’ charging and not ‘DC’. In order to use the bi-directional function, the car battery must therefore be capable of being discharged with alternating current (AC). At the moment, there's still only a handful of cars that can be discharged at all, and some of the cars that can be discharged are only suitable for DC discharge. That limits your options quite a bit! To see which cars are suitable, you can check a website like ev-database.org. This website provides detailed information about charging and discharging options for all electric car models. If a car has the ‘V2H’ option, it is in principle possible to discharge it: V2H stands for Vehicle-to-Home. If you browse the website you will see that for most models it only states that this feature has been ‘announced’, but is not yet ready.
On ev-database.org you will find the possibilities for bi-directional charging for all electric car models, both AC (left) and DC (right). This example is the Renault 5 E-tech
Also important to know: the current version of the eCharger is not yet capable of billing charging sessions via a back-end portal. This means that it is not yet suitable for lease drivers or people who have their kilometers reimbursed by their employer. A follow-up version is planned for this, which should be ready sometime early next year.
The new eCharger can be supplied with or without a charging cable and can be ordered immediately. You can find more information on our product page, from which you can also download the data sheet. Want to know more? Contact us, and we will be happy to explain everything to you.
Pole with two SMA eChargers including charging cable. A maximum of 3 SMA eChargers can be installed in a home