In the war over EV DC fast-charging standards, CHAdeMO has lost a major battle. France will no longer require charging stations to support CHAdeMO alongside the Combined Charging Standard (CCS), according to Electrive (via Charged EVs).
The French government has reversed its position from 2017, when it required new charging stations to support both standards. Now only CCS and 22-kilowatt AC charging will be required at new or rebuilt stations.
The change closes out another major market for CHAdeMO. Most other European countries have largely shifted to CCS, and the Volkswagen-funded Electrify America network in the United States uses CCS by default. Electrify America does offer at least one CHAdeMO connector per station, but the total number is much smaller than the number of CCS connectors.
2021 Nissan Leaf
Yet the number of CHAdeMO connectors globally is still growing, according to the official CHAdeMO website. Pakistan and Qatar installed their first CHAdeMO charging stations in 2020, while the number of connectors in South America is up 33% so far this year, compared to the same period in 2020, according to the site.
Last year, several countries—including Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand—also began requiring the standard. That indicates CHAdeMO may still have a future in markets outside Europe, the U.S., or China.
To be fair, the Nissan Leaf still uses CHAdeMO, and Tesla owners can take advantage of its connectors, too. In switching from CHAdeMO to CCS in the upcoming Ariya, Nissan signaled the end of a silent war over charge connectors for the U.S.—although CHAdeMO will continue to be available for a long time.
