A common question or topic of debate is around what is happening with CHAdeMO chargers in Ireland. We hear that they aren’t as plentiful already or seen to be installed in the same way as CCS connectors. The tougher part of this still is that they exist in even sparser density up and down the West Coast of Ireland, which exacerbates the issue of CHAdeMO charging access and the difficulties that people find on the public network. So, with that, we decided to give as much info as we can in relation to where things can go in relation to CHAdeMO charging.
Legality of CHAdeMO vs CCS
Let's address the elephant in the room and confront the biggest issue with CHAdeMO charging / connectors. There is no legal requirement for CHAdeMO to be installed by any Charge Point Operator (CPO) in Ireland. Why? Because EU Directive 2014/94, introduced in 2014, and which came into effect at the end of 2017, states that the European standard for DC Fast / High Power charging is CCS (specifically, CCS2). To directly quote Annex II, Technical Specifications, 1.2:
"Direct current (DC) high power recharging points for electric vehicles shall be equipped, for interoperability purposes, at least with connectors of the combined charging system ‘Combo 2’ as described in standard EN 62196-3."
Alongside this, it set Type 2 as the connector of standard for AC charging. But, with our focus on DC charging in this article, that's an aside.
So how did we get to here then?
As the Directive states "at least" CCS connectors, it did not, and does not, prohibit the installation of CHAdeMO connectors, however it is optional. Looking back to 2017 when this came into force, there was only a handful of EVs readily available on the market that had CCS ports, whereas Nissan and Mitsubishi both used CHAdeMO, Tesla used their own proprietary connector and offered a CHAdeMO adaptor, while Renault only used Type 2 / AC43 - thus the majority of the market was CHAdeMO compatible.
What that meant is that the initial charging units that were rolled out across the country were typically a combination of AC43, CHAdeMO and CCS all rolled into one 50kW unit. This continued as such for a number of years to come, leaving us as of writing in January 2025 with 424 CHAdeMO & 1,039 CCS connectors across the Republic of Ireland. Most of the CCS growth to create the 2x plus difference in connector types has been in the past 3 - 4 years.
And while the maps below show the Republic of Ireland, it is worth noting that if you drive to Northern Ireland, or take the ferry to England, Scotland or Wales, that same EU Directive was transposed into UK law too (Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017), meaning that you will see the same change in CHAdeMO vs CCS availability over time in the UK.
| CHAdeMO per county |
CCS per county |
The humble Nissan Leaf
As mentioned above, in 2017 there was very few EVs available with CCS ports, and the Nissan Leaf reigned supreme as the most popular BEV available. And with good reason. They are a spacious, practical and comfortable vehicle with a lot of 'modern' tech that even some of the latest OEMs don't get as right as Nissan did over 10 years before them!
We will cover stats in the section below, but let's focus on the Leaf and CHAdeMO for a second. Again, the EU Directive mandating CCS was written in 2014 and implemented in 2017. However, the Nissan Leaf first hit EU markets prior to that, in 2012, with the 'new' Nissan Leaf arriving in 2018. This new model updated the Type 1 AC connector to a Type 2 AC connector, and retained the CHAdeMO DC connector - a half-way house of what it needed to have, and the biggest faux pas that could have happened. The Leaf continued to sell well, but the possibility of reliable and plentiful public charging locations was in-effect set in stone by the choice to stick with CHAdeMO. As per the maps & figures above, you can see how the number of connectors is poor for CHAdeMO, and we will come to the position of CHAdeMO vs CCS next. And with this, CHAdeMO is somewhat lucky to be supported to the levels we currently see, as there was an attempt to remove CHAdeMO from the EU network in 2019 through this legislation, but instead the "at least" wording was used to allow for CCS plus other connector types.
The stats behind CHAdeMO vs CCS vehicles
Focusing on passenger vehicles for the following sections, the Nissan Leaf held its place as Ireland's top registered EV annually (and by extension, CHAdeMO) until 2019, after which CCS vehicles would increasingly dominate. To put some numbers to that, at the end of 2019 there were over 6,000 Nissan Leaf's on Irish roads, and around 2,800 of all other makes and models. 2020 saw the number of CCS vehicles catching up, but it wasn't until the end of 2021 that this to truly swung in favour of CCS - at the end of that year there was now near 8,000 Nissan Leafs on the road, compared to near 14,500 'others'.
Notably, almost 8,000 non-CCS new EVs were registered in 2021, i.e. almost as many as the number of Nissan Leafs that had been registered over the past decade. New Nissan Leaf registrations would peak in 2022, albeit had now fallen to the sixth most registered new EV in Ireland; it was the start of the end of CHAdeMO dominance in Ireland - inevitable since the EU Directive. To the end of 2024, there are roughly 10,500 Nissan Leafs on our roads, with 440 new and 207 imports registered in 2024. Not a bad figure, but it is starting to pale in comparison to CCS vehicles, both new and imported.
For 2024, there were 17,019 new vehicles registered and 1,376 imports with CCS ports. CCS equipped vehicles made up 97.5% of all new sales and 84% of imports. To date, CCS vehicles now make up ~85% of the EV fleet (Note - There may be some rounding errors due to the likes of the Nissan eNV200 and stats from stats.beepbeep.ie can change or be ambiguous due to no names on models in the listings). This shows that the majority of the market is CCS, and with the Nissan Leaf ending production in Q1 of 2024, it is the end of new (inventory aside) CHAdeMO equipped vehicles on Irish roads. Over the next 5 years the number of CCS equipped vehicles will move quickly to be 90% and then 95% of the total electric vehicle fleet. Adding to these passenger vehicle stats, everything from light duty vans to heavy duty rigid and articulated trucks will be CCS equipped as well, further reducing the demand and need for CHAdeMO charging to be made available.
CHAdeMO to CCS Adaptors
With all of the above, the main point of 'good news' is that there are CHAdeMO to CCS adaptors coming on to the market, and there are already some in Ireland being tested - this will be something that will help allay worries of their being 'no more CHAdeMO chargers anywhere'. While there are no official units available yet, and ideally Nissan would release their own (Tesla released both a CHAdeMO and CCS adapter for the original Model S and X CHAdeMO and CCS), at least there is an avenue forward. Something to take as a plus, and not the rhetoric of all Nissan Leafs needing to be scrapped in the next few years. Currently, adaptor pricing is on the expensive side, but these should be under €500 by the time they come to market properly. Not a small sum, but for something that enables continued, and expanded, access to public DC charging, it may be worthwhile.
Also, and not a help here but as an aside, remember I mentioned AC43 further up? Well vehicles equipped with AC43 have no DC adaptor and their public charge points have been dwindling across the country. People use them as second cars for around town now, and the majority are still on the road. These vehicles still serve a purpose and still work extremely well, we've just ended up adjusting for the use cases. Thankfully as we look at CCS equipped vehicles, this won't be an issue again in the future!
What's for the future?
So where does that leave us with a vehicle that uses a CHAdeMO connector?
Firstly, while the legal requirement is that at least CCS be provided, a large number of CPOs are still going that extra step and installing new units with both CCS and CHAdeMO - AppleGreen Electric, Circle K, EasyGo, ePower, ESB ecars, InstaVolt and Weev are still installing such units on new sites. Yes, some sites will be CCS only, but it has not been a complete stop to date, and we expect this to continue for some more time to come. As such, it is important on those longer journeys to check before you go, both now and in the future that the point you plan to stop and charge at has the right connector if you are using CHAdeMO.
Secondly, as per the last section, there are CHAdeMO to CCS adaptors coming to market, and this will ultimately be the 'saving grace' of the likes of the Nissan Leaf if you want to continue using it as your main vehicle without having to change. In fact, it will only help the availability of fast charging as there are currently sites that are CCS only that will now be effectively opened with these adaptors. And most importantly, this allows for the continued use of your Nissan Leaf and not having to scrap the vehicle as you may have been told or heard. There are many, many years left for all CHAdeMO vehicles on our roads.
Finally, as a committee we have not stopped asking for CHAdeMO to be supported at new sites - the percentage of CHAdeMO vehicles is still quite high, and currently make up the majority of affordable second-hand vehicles in the market. But, we will have to evaluate as a committee and as owners and users of electric vehicles in this country at some point in time in the near future for how much longer we do this for. The economics of supporting new CHAdeMO connectors is not something that can continue indefinitely as this could possibly lead to wasted infrastructure and reduce the much-needed CCS connector rollout for 2030 and beyond. There are both financial and fundamentally environmental costs to installing a 50/50 CCS to CHAdeMO unit now, and then retrofitting it in 3 - 5 years to become dual CCS, as an example.
We appreciate there are huge frustrations behind the current situation, and how it feels unfair to the early adopters and the current owners of vehicles that still have CHAdeMO ports. But we also have to look to the future and not let a crucial historically important stepping stone be a hindrance either. While the Nissan Leaf and its CHAdeMO connector has helped set the path forward to an electric future, the CHAdeMO connector will unfortunately come to an end as a new connector on units, but will live on through the use of adaptors and other innovative measures. It is a balancing act that we have to walk for the next short while, but we hope the above will help with those to understand that we need to keep moving forward for the complete electrification of our fleet and CHAdeMO will eventually bide its time in it's current format.
P.S. As the author, I have owned two Nissan Leaf's, and for the changes we are seeing and to what is to come, I would definitively purchase another. None of what is happening would give me a reason to sell my vehicle (mine are already sold, fyi) or to not purchase another one in the future. So don't believe the doom & gloom around this, if anything I still think the future of the likes of a Nissan Leaf is still quite bright!
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