Thermal Evaluation of CCS and NACS Reference Devices and Adapters

It is important for manufacturers of electric vehicle charging connectors, inlets, and adapters to understand the thermal performance of their devices. Various standards, such as SAE J1772, SAE J3400, IEC 62196, UL 2251, and UL 2252, list temperature limits that charging hardware needs to meet. However, there are currently very limited standardized reference devices against which to measure connector performance, and those that do currently exist generally serve charging currents less than 500A. This can make determining whether a charging connector meets the appropriate temperature limits difficult. Additionally, as automakers and charging station suppliers transition from the SAE J1772 CCS charging standard to SAE J3400 NACS, a number of CCS-to-NACS and NACS-to-CCS adapters are entering the market. These devices are being produced both by well-known automakers/equipment OEMs and lesser-known third-party suppliers, across a wide range of price points and construction qualities. Though SAE J3400/1 and UL 2252 lay out standards for adapter construction, performance and overtemperature response, there is no guarantee that any particular adapter will follow these standards and react to overtemperature events appropriately. This work addresses these issues by developing and evaluating a set of CCS and NACS reference inlet devices to validate the performance of charging connectors in the 500-800A range. The work also evaluates the performance of multiple NACS-to-CCS and CCS-to-NACS charging adapters with respect to UL 2252 temperature limits and SAE J3400/1 overtemperature signaling criteria.