MOBILITY ENGINEERING Produced by SAE Media Group
MOBILITY ENGINEERING
Magazines
Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

Magazine cover

Current Issue

Archives

SAE J3400/2 Update Brings Quicker NACS Charging

Like a sports car, sometimes you have to remove materials to be quicker.

A 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe hybrid recharging. Although many automakers have stated their intention to adopt the NACS charging connector, as of late 2023, Jeep parent company Stellantis had yet to confirm it is considering an option to the current SAE J1772 Combined Charging System (CCS) connector. (Stellantis)

As SAE standard J3400 (also known as NACS) is being adopted by automakers and deployed on the latest EVs, the standard itself is still evolving. That latest evolution is SAE J3400/2. That extra 2 will make charging quicker, thanks to hardware updates to the port and inlet.

Rodney McGee, director of the NACS J3400 Task Force and an electrical engineering professor at the University of Delaware. (Sebastian Blanco)

As standards are announced, there are elements that result in a standard within the standard. Essentially, J3400 is more of a family of standards that handle everything from the internal technology that allows for compatibility, the hardware specs and testing of adapters that have and will be deployed and, in the case of J3400/2, the hardware itself.

The Chair of the J3400 Task Force, Rodney McGee shared that hardware adjustments to the plug allow for the higher charging rates. "It has some material removed, so it increases the maximum voltage it can handle. They call that creepage and clearance, basically, so that you can have isolation between the positive and negative terminals on the connector."

Colloquially known as the Tesla plug, NACS was deployed by that automaker on 500-volt charging stations. While plans for 1,000-volt chargers were announced, Tesla didn't open any of these stations until after NACS was handed over to SAE and the automotive and charging community to become a standard. McGee notes that the hardware change was proposed by Tesla as part of the SAE J3400 standard.

"The publication of SAE J3400/2 as an SAE International standard represents our confidence in the maturity of the 1000-volt-capable NACS coupler for reliable and safe bidirectional power transfer," McGee said. Making sure that NACS is compatible with vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid is not only an additional feature that should increase EV adoption, it can also be used by utilities to help stabilize the electrical grid during moments of increased demand.

Click here  for more information about J3400/2.

Topics:
Board-Level Electronics Charge couplers Charging stations Computers Electric vehicles Electrification Electronics & Computers Energy Storage Hardware Parts Vehicle charging Vehicles

More From SAE Media Group

    Transcript

    00:00:03 [Music] The technology being introduced with the SAP J3400 charging port standard is impressive. But to bring all those features to the EV world does require some hardware changes. And that's where J3400-2 comes [Music] in. I'm here with Rodney McGee. We're here at the American Center for Mobility

    00:00:32 and we're here to talk about uh an addition to J34. J3400 is not a static thing. The standard and essentially why don't why don't you explain it? What what is it? Is it is it's a well it's a family of standards now. I mean we have the um J3400 kind of primary system level document. Uh we have uh 3400-1 which is our adapter document and

    00:00:57 we have J300-2 which is just the mechanical uh part of the coupler design. That's the connector and the inlet and that is now approaching the highest level of standardization maturity. And so today we're talking mainly about uh J3400-2. And this is the actual hardware. This is what people will see. Well, you know, there's a lot of tech

    00:01:19 technology that's going on in the background with this standard, but this is what people will see when they're plugging their vehicles into their into the charging stations or maybe into their home charger in the future. Yeah. the classic Nex uh connector that a lot of people are familiar with. Um you know the majority of existing superchargers are the 500vt sort of connector and uh

    00:01:41 J3400 is the 1000V uh variant of the NAX connector and it has some material removed so it increases the maximum voltage it can handle. They call that creepage and clearance basically so that you can have isolation between the positive and negative terminals on the connector. So what we're defining there is uh the mechanical the space around the customer's hand and the vehicle to

    00:02:11 make sure that we don't have a manufacturer make a connector that doesn't fit into someone's charge port. So those kinds of uh details are important part of the mechanical specification and that's where we have um you know maturity of that document as like a full international standard. And we talk about the the creep and the removing materials. You're talking

    00:02:31 mostly about the actual plug that goes into the vehicle. It's going to look well it will look a little bit different than what people are accustomed to when they go to say the Tesla supercharger stations. He has a little cutouts on the side between the the power pins and the communication and ground pins uh that um allow for that higher voltage rating and without and the idea of removing that

    00:02:55 that material. What was the what was Yeah. So basically, you know, in order to have isolation between the the sides, you kind of have to create a path between uh how far does it have to go between positive and negative. And one way to achieve you know a higher separation is to remove um you know material and strategic places. And that was uh that you know design essentially

    00:03:20 was what you know Tesla proposed um you know a year before SA picked up the standardization is what they proposed as the thousandb variant of um next which I guess so far they've only deployed in like the cybert truck. So now, you know, in the future, you know, as this, you know, as you're looking at not just the super stations or the superchargers, uh, other companies that

    00:03:42 are are building, um, Max compatible charging stations, right? Cuz in the CCS land, the transition of,000 volts was a couple years, you know, before where we are with Knack. And so the vendors who are now uh, taking their charging stations and they're already thousand volt capable. So the next uh charging cable that they want to adopt is is going to be the thousand volt rated one

    00:04:06 so that they can you know cover the full range from you know um 200 volts to like 920 technically that's what we require um the charging stations provide and so that would you know mean that you know you can uh you know charge uh Teslas that have a you know Tesla S or 3 that has a lower pack and or also you know ionic vehicles or Hummers or you know those vehicles that have the higher

    00:04:32 voltage battery packs. Well, it's really exciting about our what's coming up to uh with J3400 and for the future of EV charging. And for more videos about EV charging, sustainability, electric vehicles, be sure to subscribe to SAPE International. [Music]

    Top Stories

    INSIDERDesign

    Feature Image Venus Aerospace’s Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Completes First Flight...

    INSIDERDesign

    Feature Image Bombardier is Digitally Upgrading its Aircraft Design, Engineering and...

    INSIDERDefense

    Feature Image How the US Army is Advancing Research in Robotics, AI and Autonomy

    INSIDERManned Systems

    Feature Image New Copper Alloy Could Provide Breakthrough in Durability for Military Systems

    Original EquipmentManned Systems

    Feature Image ACT Expo 2025: Heavy-Duty EVs, H2 Trucks and Tariff Talk Dominate Day One

    Technology ReportPower

    Feature Image ICE and Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Show Staying Power

    Webcasts

    Similar Stories

    NewsEnergy

    Feature Image Slate Unveils Bare-Bones EV Mini Truck

    NewsPower

    Feature Image GM Follows Ford to Adopt Tesla EV Charging Connector, Join Supercharger Network

    Road ReadyEnergy

    Feature Image 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Brings All the Right Updates

    NewsPower

    Feature Image First Drive: Lucid's Gravity Electric SUV

    NewsEnergy

    Feature Image Ford Stuns Industry with Move to Join Tesla’s EV Charging Network, Adopt...

    PodcastsPower

    Feature Image Defining the Use Case for Future Military Electric Vehicles