In the rules of season 9 of Formula E, the possibility of having an Attack charge has been introduced, as a short stop of 30 seconds during the race.
In this “charge stop”, a fast charge is performed with a power of 600 kW, loading approximately 4 kWh into the battery.
At the moment Gen3 cars are equipped with a ComboCCS 2 charging port identical to that of traditional cars, this port allows fast recharges up to 350 kW.
For short period, the connectors and electric cables can be used at powers much higher than those on the plate because damage occurs when the heat becomes too high and the cable or connector is damaged.
Using them for short times there is not enough time to overheat therefore much higher currents can be used, for example the 350 kW CCS2 connector can easily reach 400-500 kW. In fact, the first hypothesis of Attack charge was to pass the 600kW in the CCS2 connector counting on the fact that in 30 seconds it would not have heated up so much as to be damaged.
However, at the end of 2021, the announcement of the final and definitive specifications of the MCS (Megawatt charging system) connector upset the cards which, maintaining full electronic and protocol compatibility with the CCS, allows to reach powers much higher than 3 .7 MegaWatt (3700 kW) with tests performed up to nearly 5 MegaWatt.
Given that protocol and electronic compatibility is guaranteed, it seems that Formula E has decided to use this connector for the future attack charge, both to ensure wider margins of development in charge power and to ensure, as always, that Formula E act as a test bed for emerging technologies.
The running change of the connector could be one of the reasons behind the delay in the appearance of the Attack charge in the race, which promise in season 9 has not yet been seen and probably will not be seen until the arrival of the new definition of the charging port.
From an ergonomic point of view, the current port placed in the rear is not positioned in an optimal way for a quick top-up during the race, having been created and optimized so as not to hinder the work of the mechanics in the box (the grip drops from above and in that position the cable does not cover any components that need to be worked on).
Charging in the pit lane during the race is very different from an ergonomic point of view and probably the socket needs to be positioned at a lateral point of the vehicle so that the pit mechanics can quickly insert and extract it at the beginning and at the end of the charging session.
#SimoneRambaldi #theEMNteam
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