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Author Topic: CCS?  (Read 1246 times)

enaef

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CCS?
« on: March 09, 2026, 11:42:09 PM »

Zero is looking for:
- Electrical Engineer III - Powertrain Systems
- Electrical Test Engineer, Level I or Level II
- Sr. Embedded Engineer

https://zeromotorcycles.com/employment

Could that point into the direction of CCS-development / DC? (I'm no engineer ... )
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2019 Zero SR/F Premium & Rapid Charger

Specter

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2026, 01:03:55 AM »

it might be, but CCS is well developed really, there really is not a lot of that wheel to have to invent - reinvent, just implement.  some software revisions and wiring mods, adding a charger controller mod etc.  really just a control relay, a disconnect relay, small comms package, and hmi interface with existing, however that's putting it VERY simple.  oh and a plug.  the charger kind of takes care of the rest, the bike just says, what voltage and how many amps. it can tell the volts by looking really.

is CCS the right term for us to use or should we say DC fast charge?

that would be nice, because there are a lot of zero's and the more demand we can create for fast charge stations, the more they hopefully will end up building, filling in the empty spots.

aaron
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JaimeC

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2026, 03:57:17 AM »

IIRC, the Zero battery is only 100v, and CCS has a minimum of 200v or 300v, so either Zero develops a new battery, motor and controller to support CCS, or they'd have to install equipment that could step down the voltage somehow (and I think that would add a LOT of weight and complexity).

They need to do SOMETHING, though. Most new charging stations being built in the US is either CCS or NACS because more and more people are buying electric CARS. The folks building these sites don't really give a rat's patootie about the small number of eMotorcycle riders out there.
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karlh

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2026, 05:19:46 AM »

Jaime - I don't have a copy of the spec, but I think the minimum voltage changed to 50V a few years back.
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Karl
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Specter

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2026, 06:22:13 AM »

what is the kwhr of their battery pack?  ie it's C rate.  It might be too small to really be able to do something with, and what a fast charger would be 'allowed' to do, could also easily be doable with a AC charger pushing say 32 or 40 amps.    at 40 amps, you can get 9.6 kw on AC.  45 amps which would be the MAX most DC circuits would be allowed to handle unless hard wired. 10.8 kw.   A fully loaded up one is what 17.3 kw. maybe 21 if you cram a charge tank and all that onto it.   Also since it's air cooled, like Energica, pushing it harder may cause heat issues. Their batteries are prone to getting too hot to begin with.   I know ive seen zero's at the track now and then and asked if we could take a few laps together and was politely declined saying it overheats after a few laps.

it would absolutely open up a ton more charging options for them, but they probably are thinking it's not worth the extra issues it'd bring along with it.

Jaime, bringing the voltage down to battery volts would be a huge issue, one they'd probably not invest the effort into.   The other way around is doable, Tesla for example is running 800 volts.  Many of the CCS / older chargers maxxed out at 500 volt under the older protocols, so what they did is, their batteries are 2 sub units in series, but for charging they split them down them middle and parallel them so it's running 400 ish volts now into 2 parallel battery banks .vs. 800 native, and the older units can still charge them.  it's easy to split batteries to lower 'seen' voltage but making it more. yah that's an issue.

aaron
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princec

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2026, 06:23:16 AM »

It did, but almost all older installations out there won't do under 200V in practice and I think it only recently got updated in the spec to go down to 150V not 50.

Cas :)
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MVetter

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2026, 07:02:59 AM »

Those job postings don't really point to DC Fast Charging in any way.
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Specter

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Re: CCS?
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2026, 07:11:08 AM »

The original spec was 200 volts to 500 volts.  some units customized their software to go lower in volts, around 100 but that was an exception, not the norm.
later, when the ultium platform and the likes came out that ran at 800 plus volts, they updated the standard from 500v to 1000 volt to handle them.  Mechanically essentially stacking 2 charging cards in series to put out the kilovolt.  This would also bring the base voltage up to 200 volts as well. so 200 to 1000 volt... fortunately there wasn't a hell of a lot of stuff that ran in the 100 to 200 volt range, so this didn't cause too many problems, either way some units tweaked it to do 100 volt (the original soft basement) t0 1000 volt.
(essentially a relay to clack to put the second card per 'set' either series for new stuff or parallel for old school)

since then, the newer power head cards are being manufactured to handle this natively, so unlike older charging systems, don't have to play games, they can handle it naturally.

CCS is hard set at a 1000 volt ceiling, and there is talks of adding a new 'standard' or update or bla bla to bring it to 1500 volts but there never really was an established like iso standard THIS is the minimum voltage it must be.  200 was  accepted, then 100 was cool because there was some stuff that went that low and they could also use power boards from fork lift type chargers etc..and still call it DCFC / CCS.

while there wouldn't be a problem with lowering the min voltage down that low and calling it CCS, you'd have to get a manufacturer to do so, as today's standard pretty much starts at 200 volts.  (although you can still get chargers built by well known companies that will do 100 volt..shrug)

old chargers / new cars can play tricks to get the lower voltage limited chargers to charge their packs, but there really are no tricks to get a higher voltage charger to do a lower voltage pack.

aaron
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