Bosch has engineered a flexible smart charging cable with integrated control and safety technology for electric vehicles. The charging cable operates without the usual “charging brick” — the bulky in-cable control box — when charging at a 230 V power socket. This means the flexible smart charging cable weighs less than 3 kg.
On average, this is a good 40% less than conventional charging cables with a control box. The high-tech cable saves not only weight but also space in the trunk. Because it comes with adapters for Type 2 and household plugs, drivers who want to be free to choose whether to recharge from a power socket at home or from a charging station on the road no longer need a second cable.
The three-phase cable enables mode 2 and mode 3 AC charging at up to 22 kW. With the flexible smart 
Source: Boschcharging cable, there is no need for a wallbox when recharging at home. The technology integrated into each of the plugs makes the recharging process safe and reliable. The type 2 connector at the vehicle end of the cable contains the components for controlling and monitoring the charging power. At the other end, the household plug with adapter houses the temperature control and a residual current device. This ensures that no overloading or overheating occurs even during regular recharging at a household power socket with up to 2.3 kW of charging power. If necessary, the safety technology deactivates the cable before the situation becomes critical.
To be able to integrate the control and safety technology into the compact cable connectors, Bosch developers have significantly reduced the size of the electronics components compared to previous applications in control boxes. Here, they benefited from the miniaturization expertise that it is constantly developing within the company, which expects to start selling the cable to vehicle manufacturers and drivers in mid-2022.
